Susan MacDonald
Susan MacDonald is a photographer who explores the beauty and complexity of everyday life. Born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, she now lives in Jersey City, where she captures the extraordinary in the ordinary. She works in black and white and color, creating images that evoke emotion, inspire contemplation, and challenge perception. Her photography is a means of expression and communication. She invites viewers to see the world in a new light through her lens. She believes "photography is the art of seeing what others don't" and strives to share her vision with the world.
Downloadable “Floral Arcanum” catalog HERE
Downloadable “Transient Vistas” catalog HERE
Downloadable “Transference - Torridon & Wester Ross” HERE
To inquire regarding these stunning works from Susan MacDonald’s Floral Arcanum series, please call 201-744-6713
"Floral Arcanum 3" from series "FLORAL ARCANUM"
Have you ever wondered what lies beneath the surface of the ordinary? That is what I explore through my photography.
In “Floral Arcanum” I explore the beauty and complexity of everyday life,finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. I use the medium as a way of expressing and communicating emotion, as well as exploring its creative possibilities. My work is a reflection of my experiences, perspectives, and emotions. I challenge perception and invite viewers to see the world differently.
"Spectral Shores" from "TRANSIENT VISTAS"
Artist Statement.
“My work explore the boundaries between perception and memory through the lens of Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) photography. Each image is created in-camera, not as record of a scene, but as a translation of fleeting emotion and atmosphere, is an act of transference from the external world to an internal, felt experience.
By moving the camera in deliberate, I invite the landscape to dissolve into abstraction. The resulting images encourage viewers to step closer and become immersed in the subtle interplay of color, light and motion. These works are not about capturing a moment, but about releasing it, allowing the familiar to blur, shift, and becoming something new.
In the context of the “Transference” series my work asks: “What do we carry with us from the places we pass though? How do our memories transform the world around us? each piece is an invitation to pause, reflect, and experience the quiet power of transformation.”
"The Green Wood Breathes" from series "TRANSFERENCE - TORRIDON & WESTER ROSS
In ‘Transference - Torridon & Wester Ross” Susan MacDonald distills the atmospheric terrain of Scotland northwest highlands into subtle, whisper quiet images of land and light. Using Intentional Camera Movement, Susan MacDonald explores thresholds, where loch meets hill, weather meets memory, and motion meets stillness. Rather than documenting a scene her photographs capture duration and sensation: wind brushing across water, the fading afterglow of dusk, the gradual shift of weather. Her abstractions invite us to linger, translating the landscapes of Torridon and Wester Ross into images paced to the rhythm of memory.
Both regions carry centuries of geological and cultural resonance. Home to some of the oldest rock formations in Europe, and shaped by ancient glaciation; Torridon and Wester Ross stand as living records of deep time. Their long histories of Gaelic Heritage and crofting traditions enrich the landscapes with myth, memory and human presence. Susan MacDonald subtly echoes these layers, not by depicting the land, but by revealing what it holds.