Professional Profile of Photographer Su Chung

Ordinary things become art through emotional portrayal. By sharing my expression, I hope to affect a new appreciation for detail we so often overlook. There is a sense of grace and beauty I wish to convey.

“In here life is beautiful” Cabaret

I was born in Jamaica and moved to Florida at the age of eleven. I attended the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and received a photography degree in 1992. I relocated to Miami Beach shortly after graduation and started working in a professional film processing lab, an environment in which I’ve learned valuable technical knowledge. It is during this time where I had the freedom to experiment that I fell in love with the art of photographing on my own terms. My task presently is to balance my dedication to my job (I now manage a lab in South Beach ) with my responsibility to my art. The effort is both challenging and fulfilling at the same time.

I began in 1997, with what originated as an experiment with a new technique. My delight at the results encouraged me to focus primarily on this subject matter for the past six years. It is to be a lifelong collection of images that will forever remind me of the fleeting beauty of nature, perfect in its design. For me, the images that came through me capture that gasp-of-breath moment where you first come across something so beautiful, in all its poetic splendor, not yet disturbed. Next time, look closely, each shape has it’s purpose, each color working in harmony. You might just stay a while.

Working on the Flower Series has also changed me as a person. Because of the method I use, I had to be very still and focused for hours, which has given me the discipline I needed. It also brought meditation without being aware of it. It made me stop in time, and gave me the confidence to really delve into the work. I now apply this new-found passion combined with discipline to my Portrait Series which I had actually started some time ago but have neglected in recent years. However I am now going at it with a new freedom, the freedom from restraints of what traditionally makes a "good" portrait. I learned from my Flower Series that I don’t have to think too much about theoretical Composition and Design, that it’s already in me. I trust my instincts more. I think that this philosophy translates in to everything you do in life. My aim is to capture life as I see it, and if it stirs you at all, then I've succeeded.

August 2000 - Private sale through Thomas C. Burger Design, a Manhattan interior designer, for one of his clients homes in the Hamptons, New York.
September 2001-July 2003 - Solo exhibition at the concourse gallery in the Miami International Airport chosen through the Miami-Dade Art in Public Places organization which led to subsequent purchase of several of the exhibited pieces by the organization for permanent installation at another location.
Private sale to the World Resources restaurant on Lincoln Road Mall in Miami Beach.
Slide presentations at several night clubs on South Beach Miami, including clubs such as Krave, Liquid, and Steam.