I’ve known Susan Egan for over a dozen years. Ever since graduating art school she’s been balancing her two loves, horses and photography, spending half the year to be closer to the horses and half in NYC, where she’s trudging along nicely.

Her work has always gravitated towards the body, with an open freshness that appears exhibitionist, but is really the path towards self-fearlessness. Call it your birthday suit, in Egan’s work there is a confidence, a notion that clothes are to keep away the cold, a place to hold things, merely a veil for the beauty that your body is. Sexy for sure, that’s what it’s all about isn’t it?

Here’s a brief interview with Susan we’re presenting in tandem to the photo series we’ve posted, which contains work currently on exhibit at Gnarly Vines in Brooklyn.

Wise Elephant (WE): Why Polaroid?
Susan Egan (SE): You can’t beat the Polaroid’s character. The soft colors, the painterly quality, especially when scanned and enlarged. But it’s more than that, the Polaroids immediacy is seductive, and allows the model to collaborate more effectively. The time spent waiting for processing, creates a space to develop rapport, spend some hang time. I like to think my shoots are fun, and relaxed, and my models are usually friends, or friends of friends, so it’s social as well as problem solving. The Polaroid quality itself is very flattering, and models are usually thrilled with how they look, which builds more confidence. I think a confident woman is sexy. I also enjoy the fact that most of the models from the body of work are in their thirties, or older, and not a twenty-something professional model, but smoking hot none the less!

WE: Why so few faces?
SE: I didn’t want the photos to become portraits, and tried to avoid faces, which also makes the figures more accessible to the viewer, more fetishistic.

I shoot a lot of portraiture, and I’ve photographed people in the nude, and included their faces, but I found that even though my subjects were nude, the images were more like portraits than figure studies. Avoiding identity through eliminating the faces helps to transform these ladies into “every woman” in her underwear. It also allows the viewer to objectify or fetishize the female form when they’re not confronted by a face, or eye contact from the subject.

WE: How do you define a successful picture?
SE: Shooting with a range finder like my 180 Polaroid Landcamera (used for this body of work), can sometimes be a challenge compositionally, especially when shooting close. My camera tends to be top heavy, what I see through the view finder shows less of the top of the image than what actually comes out on the film. I’ve learned to guesstimate what the composition will be. When I find an appealing situation, I usually shoot a few versions, tweaking it slightly until I come up with something I can live with. That “something” usually includes a balance of composition, range of appropriate values, and freshness/mysteriousness of pose.

WE: Next?
SE: Not sure. I have a few things cooking. Started shooting topless yet accessorized environmental portraits Always looking for new models…I was thinking about shooting some of those twenty-something professional models again, it’s been a while.

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See more of Susan’s work at her website: http://susaneganphoto.com

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