Reviews

Susan’s series of photographs from her familiar woods tell stories of both the life of the forest, the remains of parts of that forest that used to be. 

On view in Mockingbird Paperie downtown this month is Something New, a selection of still-life photographs by local artist Susan C. Larkin that use flowers in particular as muses for work.

[Susan C.] Larkin uses a digital image processing technique called focus stacking, which involves compositing multiple images of varying focus into a single image. The result is that her photos have an overall clarity perfectly suited to her intricate, alien micro-worlds. Beautifully illuminated against black backgrounds, even familiar plants become unnervingly strange.

Larkin’s black-and-white digital photo Asclepias syriaca (milkweed) has a marvelous sense of chiaroscuro (light/dark contrast)—making her subject pop like a Baroque painting.

Susan’s photographs of desiccated parts of plants, using a wonderful series of macro photography techniques, display this concept of gesture in an excellent way. Scarlet Runner Bean lets the eye move along with the curls in the beans leaf forming a closed loop.

Ultimately we chose Susan Larkin as the winner of this show.  We felt that Susan’s photography really spoke to her mastery of her chosen medium.  

by Arthur Whitman Ithaca Times,December 17, 2014 Watercolorist milly acharya and photographer Susan Larkin both specialize in detailed, beautiful close-ups of botanical specimens. acharya’s Rosa

This is an amazing image of a plant bursting forth in all its glory and delicacy, captured at a peak moment in an incomparable manner by an artist who has an unsurpassed love and passion for nature, particularly taking superb close-ups that reveal extraordinary fine detail that few have been privileged to see.

Susan Larkin’s black-and-white Datura stramonium is a frame-filling close-up of a plant known for its hallucinogenic properties. It stands out among several floral and botanical images here with its alien complexity.

Evoking the early twentieth century German photographer Albert Renger-Patchz, who similarly trained his camera on a range of different types of plants, usually withered and pictured against a blank background, Ms. Larkin’s picture meticulously describes her subject in a manner that grants it a delicious availability. Ms. Larkin’s picture meticulously describes her subject in a manner that grants it a delicious availability.

In Turkey Tail Mushrooms, it is very apparent that we all carry a sense of wonder at how exciting nature close-ups are, and if we listen carefully, we can surely hear the story they have to tell. This group of fungi has interwoven a spectacular range of shapes and textures that impressively play against one another.

Susan Larkin captures the elegant forms of dry plant husks and other natural structures, bereft of color and dramatically lit. Isolated in a void of empty space, they bear the dormant potential of new life in their abundance of seeds.

We can certainly marvel at nature’s abstraction, and in “Monkshood” we see a picture of sublime beauty and melodious emotion. I love the powerful vertical format, which with the dramatic lighting and black background, enables us to clearly see every shape, structure, detail and design of this delightful plant.