Susan Magnus is a multidisciplinary artist who uses a wide variety of materials in which she creates photo-based sculptures, fine art prints and installations.
Magnus’ first solo show at Garrison Art Center in 2024 titled IMAGEAFTER was inspired and created in response to the many inherited photographs, film negatives, and objects that belonged to her mother. During the cognitive decline and eventual passing of her mother, Magnus reflected on this collection of memories and history and how the deteriorating photos from a pre-digital time was so symbolic of the gradual loss of her mother.
The transformation of these treasured objects became the focal point of Magnus’ body of work and process of grieving.
Pictured above in Laumont’s UV/Pigment studio, Susan Magnus reviews her final print of her image titled “Sentinel” with Kristen Z., one of our master printers who’s collaborative knowledge helped bring Magnus’ vision to life. The color negative was brought in to be scanned on Laumont’s Drum Scanner, and then mirrored and color corrected by Kristen during the proofing process. Overall size and the intended installation display played a big role in determining the printing process and material to print to. Using our SwissQ UV printer, “Sentinel” was printed directly to hand gessoed Linen with the image stretched around a custom wood brace for a seamless display at 60″ x 120″ creating a big impact for exhibition viewers entering the gallery.
“Sentinel” was born from a photograph taken by Magnus’ father in the early 1960s of her mother standing in front of the Jeffrey Pine of Sentinel Dome (a Yosemite landmark) in elegant dress and high heels. Magnus writes, “The iconic tree, growing in an improbable location out of cracks within the granite dome, was a testament to resilience immortalized by Ansel Adams and countless other photographers…In Sentinel, I chose to mirror the Jeffrey Pine and the portrait of my mother in order to create an uncanny portal within a panoramic landscape.”
Pictured above, “Eclipse” is composed of film negatives created by Magnus’ father of the eclipse they observed in 1970. He used her brother’s telescope to project images onto a white background and photographed them wth his Rolleiflex camera. Magnus reflects on that time, “What a lesson in astronomy, photography, and patience that day. He was my first-and in so many ways-one of my best teachers.” Magnus had the 4 negatives scanned on Laumont’s Drum Scanner and then the files were set up by Kristen in our UV/Pigment department and prepped for printing on an archival cotton based paper size 52″x42″, then back mounted on Dibond for stability, and fit into custom white maple wood frames and finished with museum art glass.
“Untitled (Blonde)” pictured to the left, was scanned by Laumont’s Fine Art Cruse Scanner and printed size 34″x44″ on archival cotton based paper, back mounted to Dibond for stability, fit into a custom maple frame painted gray, and protected with museum art glass.
IMAGEAFTER was up during the fall in 2024 at Garrison Art Center in Garrison, NY.
Installation photos by Ernesto Eisner and Laumont.
