Suzanne Opton is a self-taught photographer who began her practice in Chelsea VT. She is interested in photographs that live on the edge of documentary and conceptual. She often asks a small performance from her subjects as a window into their circumstances. Her Soldier portraits, icons of the aftermath of recent wars, were presented as billboards in eight American cities and sparked a passionate debate about issues of art and war. Opton is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Vermont Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her photographs have been exhibited internationally and are included in the permanent collections of the Addison Museum; Brooklyn Museum; Hood Museum, Dartmouth; International Center of Photography; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne; Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum among others.  She has taught at the International Center of Photography, School of Visual Arts and Cooper Union. Her  most recent book, Into the Light Cellar, is a collection of photographs and recorded stories, a bit of cultural anthropology, centered on eight isolated Vermont families in the early 1970’s. Opton lives in Corinth VT and New York City.

Suzanne Opton web site