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Photograph by Susan Bennet
The Vigilettes.
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Photo by Susan Bennet
Syrhea Conaway
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Photo by Susan Bennet
Jenny Roques.
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Photo by Susan Bennet
Greer Darling.
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Photo by Susan Bennet
Sunyatta McDermott.
Susan Bennet, a commercial and portrait photographer based in South St. Louis, has embarked a project featuring the Women of St. Louis Music. To date, she’s produced sets featuring Greer Deerling, Syrhea Conaway, Sharon Hazel, Jenny Roques, Sunyatta McDermott, and The Vigilettes.
We’ve exchanged emails with her to get a better sense of this self-assigned work, from the project’s genesis to the gear used to the overall mission.
“I sat down with each artist and asked them about what had been happening in their lives over the last year," she told us. "We'd talk about the things they were going through that they were trying to express in their music. A lot of the themes were the same: grief, loss, fear for the future, anxiety about the political climate, trying to be hopeful when things seem bleak. I'd jot down any key words that came up in our conversation, and then let an idea start taking shape. We'd talk for about an hour, and at the end of the hour, I'd tell them how I'd like to portray them, based on what they'd said. I never left a meeting without a firm idea of how we were going to proceed.”
Here’s the balance of our e-conversation.
In short, how'd the project come together? Was it an a-ha moment, or something that developed more slowly, over time? Is the final list, or is it more fluid?
Last summer I worked on a project called UNDEFINED, which featured local woman business owners. That project was really fulfilling both personally and professionally, so I knew I wanted to do another women-centric project this summer, but more in-depth with a smaller number of women. I decided to work with lady musicians because I wanted to collaborate with other creatives, and making music is so different from my own visual creation process that I knew I would learn a lot. I limited this project to a series of eight, and I've already shot six of them. I am finalizing the last two shoots now.
Your familiarity with these artists? Imagining you knew some and some were new to you? What does it add to a project to have a blend of folks you know, and folks you don't?
Some of the women I knew before we started, and some I had never spoken to before—those came as recommendations from friends. A few of the women I had been acquainted with via social media for years, but I'd never had the opportunity to get to know them well or work with them directly. The best part of this project for me has been sitting down and having conversations with all these amazing ladies and working together to create something meaningful for both of us. There's a selfish component to this project, I deliberately constructed it to give me an excuse to hang out with women whose creativity I admired.
I was also asking these ladies to open up to me in an emotional way and reveal what's going on in their lives—what they're feeling, what they're trying to express in their music. There's an intimacy to that process which is very different from everyday conversation. You don't walk up to someone in a coffee shop and ask them to tell you what keeps them up at night, what makes them feel hopeless and what helps them get out of bed in the morning. You get to know people quickly when you're asking them to reveal such personal information, so I've definitely made some new friends.
Anything that you'd like to share about the shoots? You are at a studio, with a makeup artist, the subject and... what would be interesting for a reader to know from there?
These images have been shot both on location and in the studio. I prefer the control that the studio shots give me because I really like the compositing process. When you shoot on location, some decisions are finalized then and there, but when you shoot in the studio you can always change your mind later. Most of the shoots have been really simple, just me and the musician and perhaps a makeup artist and/or an assistant. I have tried to take behind-the-scenes stills and footage so I can share them, but I am pretty terrible at remembering to do that. I was able to make a few behind-the-scenes videos, and those are posted with the final images, where available.
Would you care to share any of your tips, a la camera rig, lenses, lighting or software? Or if you feel that's giving away the good stuff, no need to comment...
I shoot Canon, and do my post-processing first in Adobe Lightroom and then Photoshop. For these images, I also added some CGI elements using 3D software. I am a big believer that gear doesn't matter, so that's the least important part to me. The idea matters, and if you have the right idea you can find a way to make it work with whatever tools you have.
Curious if you listen to the music by each artist during their shoots? I could see folks going either way on that, potentially feeling quite self-conscious.
I don't usually have music on during shoots, I find it really distracting. I only turn on music if I think the model needs it to relax. I use a fan for white noise so it's not awkwardly silent. I didn't ask them, but I assume the artists would feel weird listening to their own music during shoots. I don't know!
How do you choose projects that balance a desire to create vs. those of a more straightforward, commercial nature?
The best thing about a personal project like this one is having complete creative control. For my commercial shoots I am working to fulfill the client's vision, and here I am fulfilling my own. I love creating images that help my clients tell their stories, anything from corporate headshots to ad campaigns, but it's really important to do personal creative projects to keep my mind fresh. I never want to get to the point where taking photos feels like work, so I make sure to find ways to keep my imagination engaged.
Feedback from the artists on this series? How about from other viewers of the shots?
The feedback from the artists has been positive so far. My goal was to take some idea or concept that these women express in music and see if I could express it visually, and I think we've been successful in that. I have had lovely feedback from people who have seen the series. One woman thanked me, on behalf of her and her daughter, for showing women in such a powerful way. I want all of my female subjects to look strong and mysterious and perhaps even a bit intimidating because that's how I see them. I tend to forget that showing women in that way can be rare. If my work makes my subjects or the viewer feel powerful, that's the best thing I can think of.
Any good anecdotes from the series so far, a la a connection made that you didn't expect, or a shoot taking on a feel that wasn't predicted, etc.? Any happy accidents or unlikely directions?
I did a water shoot in a friend's backyard pool for the Sunyatta McDermott images and that was a first for me. The shoot itself was fantastic, Sunyatta did a great job, but I felt awful because it was a chilly night and she was wearing soaking wet clothes. I made Syrhea Conway jump in place on one foot for an hour to get her shot—I am sure she wasn't a huge fan of mine the next day. It's hard to balance my desire for the perfect shot with keeping the model comfortable—I vacillate between feeling terrible for them, and thinking that the next shot will be the keeper. Everyone from the project is still speaking to me, so I think I did OK.
