Susan Graham Sugar Model Photographs Response

"Untitled Landscape (Sugar Coaster2)"

"Untitled Landscape (Sugar Wagon)"











Susan Graham's photographs of sugar models are highly stylized and use this style to make the message known and more strongly based. To an extreme, Graham keeps the detail of the imagery in only the areas necessary to convey the message/theme. Graham's photos can easily be broken down into two areas of consideration- the sugar models and the environment that surrounds them. The environment of the photographs, as well as the black and white quality, helps emphasize the importance of the sugar models themselves. The models are what we as viewers are intended to focus on and essentially remember. The imagery is suggestive of a dream. We remember certain parts of dreams while other factors in the dream (the setting for example), seem to fade out in lack of importance. This is similar to the effect of the imagery in these photographs. 

In "Untitled Landscape (Sugar Wagon)", (Gelatin Silver Print, 2000, ed.2/10), the theme of a dreamlike world is perhaps the most evident. This is due to the imagery. All of Graham's photos are simple when it comes to the surroundings, but this photograph is exquisitely clean in it's emptiness. There is barely a noticeable grain in the print and there is no blur within the fore-to-back ground transition- a clear line makes the separation. If it weren't for this noticeable line, a separation between the similar values of the sky and ground would not be as evident. The wagon sits eerily off to the right side looking just as empty as its surroundings. 

Our eye is drawn to the sugar model by more than one device. The horizon line leads our eye easily from left to right as we come upon the wagon. Our eye is always searching for something to concentrate on, so simply put- there is nothing but the models to look at. Since the environment provides nothing of any real substance to concentrate on we are ordered to look at the wagon. In this way, Graham uses the setting to spotlight the wagon. It's this mix of directness and mystery that makes these photographs comparable to dreams. Like a dream, upon interpretation, we may also be able to recall what we saw but not understand it. We see a wagon, in a desolate place, but are given no real answers as to what the story is behind it. Even the title gives nothing away, stating only the obvious. We still dig deeper at the puzzling nature of the photographs, like a dream, trying to uncover any more details to come to a better understanding. These photographs impress us as well as confuse us as interpreters. They show us what to study and remember- like we remember specifics from dreams, but never exploit the importance of remembrance- like our dreams are always open to interpretation. 

We interpret dreams similar to how we interpret imagery in art- we make a story out of it. Graham's imagery has the benefit of telling many stories by leaving much to the imagination. So much of the story is based on the sugar models that the fact that they are made of sugar is rather unimportant. It is about what the models convey, not about what they are made out of. Graham proves this point by taking pictures of the models which on their own are beautiful and telling pieces of artwork. By putting them into photographs, she gives them another medium to tell a different story in.

The imagery used in "Untitled Landscape (Sugar Coaster2)", (Gelatin Silver Print, 2001, Artists print), tells a very different story than the previously discussed sugar wagon. Here we have more of a dramatic scene, with an airplane flying midair passing over a rollercoaster in the distance. The story is definitely left to interpretation because these two objects are not interacting so much as existing in close space. The story seems not to be about an event so much as a moment- maybe not an all important moment, but a particular moment. This again brings us back to the mystery element of dreams. Why this particular moment was framed we do not know, but because it is framed, we know that it is special. Graham's images teach us to look at the things we see every day and in our dreams and to appreciate them, not for what they do or how they might affect us, but for what they are.

J.Killeen

Feb. '06