Wind Up! is a lifetime retrospective at Dublin's City Assembly House of acclaimed photographer Susan Wood's seven decades of work shooting actors, artists, authors, musicians, models, politicians, designers, culinary luminaries, and other famous faces - enjoy a gallery of images above.
Her list of subjects is a who's who of mid-to-late 20th century names including: Andy Warhol, Anthony Quinn, Bernadette Peters, Betsey Johnson, Betty Friedan, Bill Blass, Bono, Cheryl Tiegs, Chet Baker, Christie Brinkley, David Hockney, David Letterman, Dennis Hopper, Diane von Furstenberg, Dick Cavett, Elizabeth Hardwick, Frank Gehry, Geneviève Bujold, George Plimpton, George Segal, Giorgio di Sant’ Angelo, Gloria Steinem, Gregory Peck, Helen Gurley Brown, James Coburn, Jayne Mansfield, Jim Brown, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, John Wayne , Joseph Heller, Julia Child, Karen Black, Kurt Vonnegut, Larry Rivers, Lilly Pulitzer, Louis Armstrong, Marcello Mastroianni, Martha Stewart, Mary McCarthy, Maud Adams, Nora Ephron, Norman Mailer, Ossie Clark, Peter Fonda, Ralph Lauren, Robert Frost, Susan Sontag, Ted Kennedy, Terry Southern, Tom Wolfe and Zandra Rhodes.
Projected as a five-channel slide show with an ambient soundtrack interspersed with Susan's narration about her life, her subjects, and her creative practice, the exhibition presents Wood's work as a free-flowing immersive experience covering five walls of the Irish Georgian Society’s octagonal exhibition room at the City Assembly House in Dublin.
How did she get all of these timeless shots? "It’s very important to establish a rapport," said Susan Wood. "When you’re doing really good photographs, it’s a joint effort between the subject and you. You somehow find a connection."
Gathered from Susan’s extensive archive from a career starting in the 1950s, the mix of hundreds of both published and never-before-seen images taken from a versatile life behind the camera lens celebrates her pursuit of beauty in the people, places, and objects she photographs. The projection format allows for the showing of many more works than would be possible in a traditional gallery setting. The chance order in which the photographs are shown enables the viewer to explore context, meaning, and eccentricity through the relationship of one image to another.
"The walls become like moving book spreads," said organizer Anthony Catania. "The novelty is that on each subsequent visit, viewers will see the images combined in different ways, offering a fresh way of observing the work."
John Boorman's Leo the Last (1970)
From Africa to the UK, from the movie sets of Easy Rider and Leo the Last to her coverage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in London, fabulous foodies like Martha Stewart on her farm, to her deep love of Ireland, the exhibition offers a peek into the world of Susan Wood.
"I’m interested in the inner person," said Susan Wood. "I’ve been called a romantic in my photographs because I often look for the beauty and the grace in my subjects."
WIND UP! Susan Wood Photographs 1960s and Beyond, City Assembly House, Dublin until July 23rd, 2023 - find out more here.
All images copyright Susan Wood.
