The Rodeo
1978-1981
As a city kid, the cowboys I loved were Hollywood myths. The first time I attended a rodeo many years later, fact and fiction collided in the form of brash young men, gambling with their bodies in a dangerous, theatrical sport. I was thrilled, puzzled, bored and touched by these mostly 20-somethings, trying to conquer the animal kingdom, and win some hearts along the way. Week after week I came back to be reimmersed in the sexual bravado of this waking dream.
By the early 1970s, single use flashbulbs had given way to electronic flash. In an innovative move at the time, I began combining high speed flash with extended exposure to record in one image both fixed and blurred versions of the same moment. The resulting photographs captured the colorful detail of reality, without losing the feeling of movement.
Hal Fisher in an Artform review of Rodeo Work “Felter's manipulation of rich, unsubtle hues in an almost poster board visage, combined with her erotic sensibility, demonstrates a skillful transference of mass media strategies to the personal photograph. In contrast to the multitude of photographers who have readily yet un-purposefully embraced color technology, Felter has developed both a form and a content that applies it to an expressive and logical end. While Felter investigates the surface (readily comprehensible experiences of the rodeo), her elegant and technically accomplished pictures transcend superficial description.”
Awards
1981. Ferguson Grant, Friends of Photography, Carmel and San Francisco, CA
1980. Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography
Publications & Reviews
2011. American Psyche exhibition catalog, Religare Art Center, New Delhi, India,
1984. California Magazine, June Issue
1983. Cowboy: The Enduring Myth of the Wild West, published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, New York, NY
1981. ZOOM, Magazine de l'Image, Paris, Summer Issue
1981. Popular Photography Annual, New York, NY
1980. Photo Show Magazine, review by Hal Fischer, Los Angeles, CA
1980. Artforum Magazine, review by Hal Fischer of SF Camerawork show, Summer Issue
Solo Exhibitions
2015 Susan Felter : Retrospective on Three Screens, FredFOTOarts Gallery in Fredericksburg, VA
2010 Working With Dreams: Susan Felter 1978 – 2010, de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA
1990. Galerie Viviane Esders, Paris, “American Rodeo”
1981. Robert Samuel Gallery, New York City, “American Rodeo”
1980. San Francisco Camerawork Gallery, San Francisco, “American Rodeo”
Group Exhibitions
2011. Religare Art Center, “American Psyche, “ New Delhi, India
1981. Institute of Contemporary Art, New American Colour Photography, London, UK