We recently connected with Susan Harding and have shared our conversation below.

Susan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

As a young mom, who had grown up in a working class family, I never considered college. But as I encouraged my kids to pursue their own degrees, I decided I should follow my own advice and enrolled in a photography class at a community college simply for fun, but it ended up changing everything. That single class sparked a deep passion, leading me to take one course after another until I completed all the photography classes De Anza College offered. Realizing I was just a few credits shy of an AA in Photographic Arts, I decided to pursue the degree. With my AA in hand, I continued my education at San Jose State University, where I earned a BFA in Photography with a minor in Pictorial Arts.

College opened my eyes to the possibility of a creative career—a path I hadn’t imagined before. A drawing class revealed a talent I hadn’t explored, and I fell in love with the tactile richness of charcoal. This inspired me to experiment with merging drawing and photography, pushing my creative boundaries. Later, an internship demonstrated how I could turn my passion into a profession. That’s when I truly understood that being an artist wasn’t just an interest but the career I was meant to pursue.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I blame my dad for my love of photography. He worked for the Highway Patrol and part of his job was to photograph accident scenes. I remember the black and white photos on his desk as he wrote his reports. Of course, this was long before the privacy laws that would keep those photos hidden from my young eyes. I loved the smell of the prints and watching how dad cared for and inspected each image.

When dad wasn’t photographing accidents, he was and still is an incredible landscape photographer. I thought that to be a successful photographer, I would have to follow in my dad’s (and Ansel Adams’) footsteps and photograph the land. So I practiced taking pictures of trees, flowers, and bridges. As time passed on, I noticed that in of my favorite landscape images, people were the subject. With this realization, I turned my lens on friends and family Starting with my parents, siblings, and friends then as I was promoted to mom then grandma my kids and grandkids suffered the constant click of my camera. They were all gracious about this endeavor with the exception of my grandkids, who both told me: that is enough grandma–no more photos. In photographing the everyday lives of my family, I ultimately realized that the small moments that happen in between the grand moments are the ones that shape our relationships. I found the unposed spontaneous images to be the most powerful.

In one of my favorite series, I am documenting the lives of my parents, who are so patient with me, as I constantly photograph their every move. The series I titled A Rural Life, provides an intimate glimpse into their lives as they navigate the complexities of aging in a small town nestled in the mountains of Utah. This project not only celebrates the universal experiences of relationships and growing older, but also highlights the passing of traditions from one generation to the next. It pays homage to the enduring beauty of a committed couple, their connection to the community, their relationships with family, and ritual of daily routines. It is a tribute to the human spirit, a celebration of a life well-lived, and a reminder of the profound stories cached in the seemingly ordinary.

I use both the skills I learned in college and photographing my family to create intimate portraits that are not only beautiful, but highlight the personality of the sitter, whether it is a single person, or a family.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I was born in a small conservative town and raised during the Reagan years, by a father working for the Utah Highway Patrol, and a mother who cooked homemade meals. Our family values were strongly influenced by the Church. Our weeks included three-hour Sunday meetings, Monday “family home evening,” and Wednesday afternoon church activities. My childhood was ostensibly perfect–except that I grappled with the reality of being a lesbian. I not only hid in the closet, I denied its existence. My dreams of becoming an artist were also cached in my closet. Girls in the Mormon community are raised with expectations; a proper Mormon woman focuses on ensuring her husband’s happiness and raising well-mannered children. She cooks, cleans, cans, and crafts. She must be humble, respectful, and obedient in following the teachings of Christ, the Prophet, and her husband. Years of indoctrination are difficult to shed, so, I surrendered my dreams; instead, I conformed, got married, and had a baby at the tender age of seventeen.
When both kids were grown, I packed my car and headed to Long Beach, California. Freed from the pressures of religion, I embraced my queer identity and established new roots that were both liberating and stabilizing. Now, settled with my wife of 13 years, I have the stillness and safety to reflect on my life. I realize I spent the first half of it conforming to a society that made me believe I was inherently unacceptable.
Despite the soul-crushing pressure to conform, escaping the strict confines of the church, the misogyny of conservatism, and the anti-queer rhetoric of the heteropatriarchy fortified me. My perspective weaves these experiences into a compassion for diversity that enriches my craft and sharpens my introspection. I use the energy of “shattered limitations” to not only reinvent myself again with renewed vigor and focus, but to have compassion for every person who sits in front of my camera.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative for me is releasing creative energy. I need this release. I need to enter my art brain and feel what can only be described as withdrawals when I can’t go there.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.susanharding.photography
• Instagram: @susan_harding_artographer
• Facebook: Susan Harding-Palmore https://www.facebook.com/SusanHardingPhotographer

Image Credits
Susan Harding Photography