Susan Kuklin
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Biography My husband, Bailey, took this picture on New Year's Eve. When I was very young, my family introduced me to art, theater, and books. These opened up many worlds -- worlds I wanted to know more about. At about age eight, I decided to become either a ballerina or a stage actress -- a very, very dramatic actress. Not such good idea, my family thought, but they went along my dreams anyway. I went to ballet class three times a week and to the Saturday matinees of Broadway shows that tried out in my hometown, Philadelphia.
I majored in the theater at New York University and attended the Herbert Berghof School of Acting. Learning to interpret a role by growing into the character -- losing "me" and becoming "another" -- was exhilarating. It wasn't that I didn't want to be me, I was simply curious about others.
While in graduate school [also at NYU] I began to direct plays. Whereas acting taught me how to interpret a part, directing forced me to look at the theater's big picture which included its visual aspects. These fundamentals, including framing, lighting, movement, and shaping became intrinsic features of my approach to photography and nonfiction writing. Then my uncle bought a Leica - and changed my life. Together, we began exploring the world through the lens of his magnificent camera. I pretended that my eyes were 35mm camera lenses. I'd walk down the street composing pictures in my mind. I'm certain I dreamed in black and white, carefully calculating the ISO. When my future-husband, Bailey, and I married, we moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. There, Bailey taught at the law school and I became serious about photography. For two years, I combed the hills of Appalachia, photographing the families who lived there. I tried to emulate one of my favorite photographers, Walker Evans, who walked the same hills some forty years earlier. Life in Appalachia seemed frozen in time. Once we returned to New York, I took my Appalachian Family portfolio to art directors at newspapers and magazines. For a while, doors slammed - no jobs. Then, lo and behold, I started to get assignments with major magazines and newspapers. During one assignment I drove around with police officers and undercover agents in the South Bronx. It was scary and exciting. With bullets flying I felt safe behind the lense of my Leica. It was not safe. [Don't try this at home.] For another assignment, I photographed George Balanchine as he rehearsed the magnificent dancers of the New York City Ballet. Covering a double homicide by day and drinking champagne backstage at Lincoln Center at night was my idea of a glamorous life. But I constantly worried the lighting was off, the angle unrevealing, and I forgot to put film in the camera. My confession: it actually happened once. Another assignment changed my life again. Columbia University professor Herbert Terrace invited me to photograph his study that asked the question: can a chimpanzee learn language? Nim Chimpsky was one very smart chimpanzee. Using American sign language, Nim was able to "say" about 300 words. He lived in a mansion with a group of graduate students, and he traveled in a BMW to his very own classroom at the university. What a guy! Before working with the chimp, Professor Terrace asked me to learn about fifty signs so that Nim wouldn't think I was a dummy. The photographs were used in two books, one of which was for children: THE STORY OF NIM, THE CHIMPANZEE WHO LEARNED LANGUAGE. [With the author, Anna Michel] My first illustrated children's book!
I fell in love with children's publishing. And it has been my home ever since. Many of my books for young people are photo essays. The text is from the point of view of the people I interview. It's their thoughts, not mine; their opinions, not mine. I transcribe their words and shape them into a book. After a few years I began exploring tough subjects for young adults. These books deal with very difficult subjects. They include the first YA book about AIDS, the first book about suicide where families allow their names and photographs to be used, a first-person account of prejudice, and teen pregnancy, human rights, child slavery, and the criminal justice system. But I did manage to sneak in one delicious dance book called REACHING FOR DREAMS. These books, for middle grades and young adults, go behind the scenes, behind the headlines and simplistic sound bites. They describe how real people respond to or are affected by a law or a societal condition. The modus operandi is a book version of cinema verite; that is, choose a subject, find a situation that depicts that subject, watch it unfold, and let the people concerned tell the story. The people lead the book. I have no idea how the book will play out until all the material is collected -- and sometimes not even then. PHOTOGRAPHY My earlier pictures were very realistic -- I never cropped a photograph and used whatever light available. But my approach to photography has since changed. While working on SPEAKING OUT: TEENAGERS TAKE ON RACE, SEX, AND IDENTITY, some of the students who participated in the book helped me decide how they should be photographed. "Arty," they said, "we want to be very, very arty." The teens suggested a cross between Richard Avedon and Robert Mapplethorp. [Not bad company.] Since every individual is indeed a work of art, it was appropriate to give this approach a try! We made a studio in an empty classroom. We set powerful strobes [lights] around a white seamless background. The students made appointments for their portrait shoot. Afterwards, they helped me choose the photograph that best represented themselves. As the technology changed, I've tried to keep up. I changed to medium format cameras for greater detail. When I photographed Bill T. Jones [DANCE] and Sheryl Swoopes [HOOPS WITH SWOOPES], I added giant strobes and huge rolls of white seamless paper so that they would look as if they were floating in air. By the way, while working with Bill and Sheryl, I felt as if I was floating in air. For ALL ABOARD: A TRUE TRAIN STORY I moved my entire studio - with the help of my assistant, the photographer Marshall Norstein - to Colorado to photograph the oldest working steam engine in America. Locally, we continue to move the studio, loading tons of equipment onto Marshall's red pick up truck. For FAMILIES, we went to fifteen different locations. For BEAUTIFUL BALLERINA, we took over the main rehearsal space at the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Just when I thought I had medium format and studio photography down pat, the technology changed again! Digital photography is a whole new way to make pictures. My once working darkroom is now a storage area for thousands of negatives and slides. My new "darkroom" is right here in this computer. Rolls and roles of film that filled the freezer have given way to ice cream and frozen bagels. I went back to school to learn about professional digital photography and PhotoShop. My first digital book, BEAUTIFUL BALLERINA, written by the superb poet, Marilyn Nelson, will be published soon. Here is a list of all my books. Some, sadly, are out-of-print, but you might find them in your local library.
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