Susan Derges

(British, b. 1955)

Untitled (Eye no. 7), 1991

Since 1986, British artist Susan Derges has explored the processes and phenomena of the natural world through both lens-based and camera-less photography. Her interest in the behavior of flowing water and botanical organisms is not simply in recording and observing, but in the poetically rich metaphors that they provide for describing the connections between ourselves and the natural world. Using time and light to create arresting images, she achieves a fusion of art and science in her photographic work.

Susan Derges was born in London in 1955. She received her BA in painting at the Chelsea School of Art (1976) and completed postgraduate studies at the Slade School of Fine Art in London (1979). Her photographs have been shown in one-person and group exhibitions around the world. Her work is included in public and private collections, including those of the Arts Council of England; Hara Art Museum, Tokyo; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Museum of Film, Photography and Television in Bradford, England; and Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Derges, Susan. Susan Derges Liquid Form, 1985-99 / with an essay by Martin Kemp. London: Michael Hue-Williams Fine Art, 1999.

Loke, M. “Susan Derges” [James Danziger Gallery, New York; exhibit]. Art News v. 94 (May 1995) p. 150.

Under the sun: photographs by Christopher Bucklow, Susan Derges, Garry Fabian Miller, Adam Fuss / [editor, Jeffrey Fraenkel]. San Francisco: Fraenkel Gallery, 1996.