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Susan Copich: Dear family
Susan Copich is a well-known fine art photographer. Mother-of-two, she creates the series “Domestic Bliss,” staged photos featuring her in darkly humorous scenes from an exaggerated life. Interview with an outstanding artist.
– How did your art career start, and was it always photography centered?
My art career began as a modern dancer, performer and choreographer in NYC and San Francisco, CA in the early 90s. After a severe knee injury, I began studying acting and
auditioning for roles. I love the character creation part of acting; it is intriguing to develop a fictional, back story from my own thoughts and experiences – it feels expansive, inclusive and playful. While pursuing acting I simultaneously began photography classes at International Center of Photography in NYC.
– ‘Domectic bliss’ was dark and witty humor photography series about family life. How did the idea come to you?
“Domestic Bliss” started with an image, “Split Milk”. While participating in a photography class we studied Cindy Sherman’s work, I was drawn to her art being a performer myself. I took her initial idea of the self portrait, then added my own twist of drama and story.
Placing myself in front of the camera is not gratuitous, it is intentional and bursting with years of experience: learning about and taking control of my body; creating anecdotes I can relate to in order to access different emotions, performing since childhood.
I am trained in contact improvisation (dance), as well as, theatre improv and use these principles in my process. A basic premise behind improvisation is a tight construct (an idea), but within these narrow rules of engagement, opportunities are endless. When I first sat for “Split Milk” I gave myself an idiom, don’t cry over spilled milk, from there I started to create a character – as if I were creating for an acting gig. I always try to initially say ‘yes and’ (first rule of improv), there is plenty of time to edit later.
It is not until my second image, “Old Habits” a year later, that I involve my family and begin to envision an entire series. It is quite organic and slow at the start. Our family receives an extraordinary amount of holiday cards and the sheer amount of “happy” is often disconcerting – It is difficult to fathom everyone is this cheerful and my reaction is to create a card that reveals a bit too much of a family rather than mask it. This is the moment “Domestic Bliss” is born. I begin looking for contradictions in life. I let the flood gates open to the shadow-side of family, sourcing from everywhere: newspapers, my thoughts/life, friends’ conversations, my generations’ take on adulthood, social/political issues – the material is endless, rich and deep. I give myself permission to think as darkly as I wish, then counter it with humor. It is a meditation on allowance.
I love to work with contradiction, it adds life, energy, tension – what better than bringing together the purity of children with dark, twisted, adult emotion in the same frame. It’s electric. A friend just sent me a quote by Gaston Bachelard after discussing my work, “Everything comes alive when contradictions accumulate.” I couldn’t agree more.
– The father/male is a faceless figure in those series. Do you think patriarchy is still the main ruler in our societies?
Of course patriarchy is the main ruler in our society, just look at how Americas’ election played out this year, also closer to home, take note of the ratio of men to women represented in galleries and museums. The headless men in my series is calculated and I think the point is made without explanation.
My female character is portrayed as the ultimate archetype/hero. She gets to be everything from the victim to the aggressor, the martyr to the whore, playful to subversive. She is fallible, fierce, complex and multi-dimensional.
– Is it a real pleasure to work with your daughters?
It is a joy working with my daughters’ on set and creating with them. They are great little actors and take direction well. I no longer have their interest/cooperation, so the series is suspended. Presently, they are 14 and 10 years old and just want to do what theydo, sans their mother’s vision. I am grateful they participated as long as they did and I have a slice of them growing up in front of the camera in these complex images, it’s priceless.
– Do you see your personality reflected in your work?
I absolutely see my personality in my work, it is sweating with it. My first ever interview, with Slate magazine, I said,
“Each image I create is a true reflection of me—not necessarily the content, but the actual slow burn experience. I think this is what I am most proud of, when people experience my work there is a layered reaction and journey and if you give it time all these layers of emotion and character and conflict are revealed and not just the rich underbelly stuff, but the initial reaction of laughter, shock and commercialism that first appear—it is all me.”
I have learned through my process, as an artist, that my psyche will always be present in my work, I believe this is where magic happens.
– Who are some of you favorite photographers past or present? Your work has also a real cinematic style. Any favorite movies?
My favorite artists are, Cindy Sherman, Annie Leibowitz, Gregory Crewdson, Sally Mann, Jackson Pollack, Edward St Aubyn, Sylvia Path, Mike Leigh, David Lynch, Vim Vandekeybus, Pina Bausch and Trisha Brown to name a few. They are painters, photographers, poets, writers, choreographers and directors. All of them reveal a piece of their selves in their work
if they intent to or not.
Favorite movies – a passion of mine since I was 10 years old – Anything Mike Leigh, most notably, “Life is Sweet”, David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet”; “Kiss of the Spider Woman”, almost anything Woody Allen for many different reasons, the palpable brilliance of Quentin Tarantino, specifically, but not limited to, “Django” – this is sheer genius – to name a few.
– What challenges and opportunities lay in shooting the streets of India and how do you tackle them best?
I love shooting in India, the people are warm and welcoming, the air is crackling with energy and motion and contradictions abound. The difficulty and pleasure in shooting in the streets of India lay in this unharnessed energy – finding the focus in order to make sense of the chaos, but staying open enough to see the unfolding; it’s a lovely balancing act that requires the senses to be awake.
– How’s life in a country where Donald Trump is president?
Well, seeing that I’m an artist and not a political commentator, what I can safely say is that I’m excited by the passion of the opposition and that people are taking to the streets to be heard in organized and thoughtful ways. I am heartened to see the voice of America rising in communal strength and attempting to balance the off-kilter situation we find ourselves waking to every morning. Just remember Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3,000,000 – this is NOT insignificant – the electoral college is a broken system and should be strongly reconsidered by next election. I’ll end there before I can’t stop myself.
