MoP Denver 2013 –Edge Gallery

We Once Were is a series of portraits by Susanne Mitchell, inspired by a group of glass plate negatives from the late 1800’s–early 1900’s. Mitchell enlarges parts of the “found” portraits into photolithographic negatives, prints them onto stained birch plywood and embellishes the imagery with painting and drawing. Removing the portraits from their original context and reinvestigating their meaning captures the melancholy and sadness in these anonymous, discarded photographs. Mitchell’s process in creating We Once Were reveals both the splendor and tragedy of humanity, and the role of photography in our complex relationships with time and death.

Susanne Mitchell</strong< (Born 1973, New York) received an MFA in printmaking from the University of Colorado at Boulder (2007) and a BFA in painting and drawing from California College of the Arts (1996). She has served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Metropolitan State University of Denver and as a Lecturer of Art at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Mitchell’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including at the Craft and Folk Art Museum (Los Angeles), the Academy of San Carlos (Mexico City) and the National University of Colombia (Medellín, Colombia). She currently lives and works in Denver, Colorado.