Susan Bright is a British writer and curator of

photography Photography is the visual art, art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It i ...

, specializing in how photography is made, disseminated and interpreted. She has curated exhibitions internationally at institutions including:

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in E ...

, National Portrait Gallery in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and the

Museum of Contemporary Photography The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) was founded in 1976 by Columbia College Chicago as the successor to the Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography. The museum houses a permanent collection as well as the Midwest Photographers Project ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

amongst others. The exhibition ''How We Are: Photographing Britain'' was the first major exhibition of British photography at

. The exhibition of ''Home Truths'' (

The Photographers' Gallery The Photographers' Gallery was founded in London by Sue Davies opening on 14 January 1971, as the first public gallery in the United Kingdom devoted solely to photography. It is also home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, established i ...

and the

Foundling Museum The Foundling Museum in Brunswick Square, London tells the story of the Foundling Hospital, Britain's first home for children at risk of abandonment. The museum houses the nationally important Foundling Hospital Collection as well as the Gerald ...

and traveling to the

, Chicago and Belfast Exposed) was named one of the top exhibitions of 2013/2014 by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' and the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

.'' Her published books include ''Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography'' (2017), ''Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood'' (2013), ''Auto Focus: The Self Portrait in Contemporary Photography'' (2010), ''How We Are: Photographing Britain'' (2007: co-authored with

Val Williams Val Williams is a British curator and author who has become an authority on British photography. She is the Professor of the History and Culture of Photography at the London College of Communication, part of the University of the Arts London, and ...

), ''Face of Fashion'' (2007), and ''Art Photography Now'' (2005). She regularly writes for museums and monographic books, and contributes to numerous magazines and journals. She holds a Ph.D in Curating from

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

Curated exhibitions

*''Icons of Pop'' o-curated with Terence Pepper and Philip Hoare

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

, June - September 1999 *''Artists of the 1990s''

, January – June 1999 *''Published Portraits''

Association of Photographers The Association of Photographers (AOP), often referred to colloquially as the AOP, is a trade association for British & European professional photographers predominantly, but also has members based globally. History It was formed in London, Unit ...

Gallery, London, January 2001 *''Faith & Brazil Incarnate: Mike Abrahams & Christopher Pillitz''

Gallery, London, April 2001 *''Gun Nation: Zed Nelson''

Gallery, London, June 2001; *''Building Sights: London Architectural Photography''

Gallery, London, September 2001; then toured with the British Council to Lithuania and Estonia); *''Truth and Lies: Jillian Edelstein''

Gallery, London, February 2002; *''Enterprise Works,'' Barge House, London, November 2004; then toured to Mailbox Birmingham;

Discovery Museum The Discovery Museum is a science museum and local history museum situated in Blandford Square in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It displays many exhibits of local history, including the ship, ''Turbinia''. It is managed by Tyne & Wear Archives ...

, Newcastle;

Royal Scottish Academy The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country’s national academy of art. It promotes contemporary Scottish art. The Academy was founded in 1826 by eleven artists meeting in Edinburgh. Originally named the Scottish Academy, it became the ...

, Edinburgh, 2005. *''1+1=3: Collaboration in Contemporary British Portraiture,''

Fremantle Arts Centre The Fremantle Arts Centre is a multi-arts organisation based in a historic building complex on Ord Street in Fremantle, Western Australia. The heritage-listed building complex was built using convict labour between 1861 and 1868 and was used ...

, Western Australia, March–April 2006;

Australian Centre for Photography The Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) is a not-for-profit photography gallery in Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia that was established in 1973. ACP also provides part-time courses and community programs. It is one of the longest running c ...

, Sydney, April–May 2007. *''Face of Fashion: Corinne Day, Mert & Marcus, Steven Klein, Paolo Roversi & Mario Sorrenti,''

, February–May 2007. *''How We Are: Photographing Britain,'' co-curated with

, London, May–September 2007. *''Something Out of Nothing,'' Fotogalleriet ( no), Oslo, Norway, October–November 2007. *''Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood,''

, London;

, London, October 2013 – January 2014;

, Chicago, April–July 2014; Belfast Exposed, Belfast, Northern Ireland, October 2014–January 2015.

Publications

*''Art Photography Now''. New York:

Aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An ...

, 2005. . **London:

Thames & Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

, 2006. **''Art Photography Now: Revised and expanded edition''. Thames & Hudson, 2011. . *''How We Are: Photographing Britain from the 1840s to the Present.'' Edited and with texts by Bright and

. London:

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, 2007. . With essays by

Gerry Badger Gerald David "Gerry" Badger (born 1946) is an English writer and curator of photography, and a photographer. In 2018 he received the J Dudley Johnston Award from the Royal Photographic Society. Life and career Badger was born in 1946 in Northam ...

and Martin Parr, and by

Kevin Jackson Kevin Andre Jackson (born November 25, 1964 in Highland Falls, New York) is an American retired freestyle and folkstyle wrestler, and mixed martial artist. Following his competitive career, Jackson would become a wrestling coach. During his in ...

. *''Face of Fashion: Photographs by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, Corinne Day, Steven Klein, Paolo Roversi and Mario Sorrenti.'' New York: Aperture, 2007. . With work by

Mert and Marcus Mert and Marcus is the working name of two fashion photographers, Mert Alaş (born 1971) and Marcus Piggott (born 1971), who work together on a collaborative basis. Their work and style is influenced by photographer Guy Bourdin and, together, t ...

Corinne Day Corinne Day (19 February 1962 – 27 August 2010) was a British fashion photographer, documentary photographer, and fashion model. Life and career Early life Corinne Day grew up in Ickenham with her younger brother and her grandparents. She ...

, Steven Klein,

Paolo Roversi Paolo Roversi (born 1947) is an Italian-born fashion photographer who lives and works in Paris. Early life Born in Ravenna in 1947, Paolo Roversi's interest in photography was kindled as a teenager during a family vacation in Spain in 1964. Ba ...

, and

Mario Sorrenti Mario Sorrenti (born 24 October 1971) is an Italian-American photographer and director best known for his spreads of nude models in the pages of '' Vogue'' and ''Harper's Bazaar''. Early life Sorrenti was born in Naples, Italy, and moved to Ne ...

. *''Auto Focus: The Self-Portrait in Contemporary Photography''. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010. . *''Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood.'' 2013. . Edited by Bright. With essays by Bright, Stephanie Chapman, Nick Johnstone and Simon Watney and photographs by Janine Antoni, Elina Brotherus, Elinor Carucci, Ana Casas Broda, Ann Fessler, Tierney Gearon, Miyako Ishiuchi, Fred Hüning, Leigh Ledare, Annu Palakunnathu Matthew, Katie Murray and Hanna Putz, *''Feast for the Eyes.'' New York: Aperture, 2017. .

References

External links

*
Interview with 1000 Words Mag about ''Feast for the Eyes''

Interview with Urbanautica

Interview with Photo Curating

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bright, Susan Photography curators Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London 21st-century British non-fiction writers British women non-fiction writers Art writers