Susan J. "Sue" Ross 

 is an Atlanta-based artist/cultural worker   using photography to document the social, political and cultural experiences of the African-American community.
(photo credit: julie yarbrough) 

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Artist bio

Susan J. “Sue” Ross refers to herself as a “photo-griot” with a specialization in documenting images which portray the comings and goings of the African-American community – cultural, political, social and economic. In the African tradition, the griot is the oral historian holding the essence of African history and culture through the word. Sue Ross, the photo-griot, uses photographs to tell the stories of the African-American community. “”I am primarily a people photographer, finding grace and dignity in the faces of our people.”

Sue Ross has combined her lifeswork with her positions in government administration for the City of Atlanta, serving as photographer for many Atlanta events including the annual Dream Jamborees, the 1988 Democratic Convention, the Atlanta Third World Film Festivals, the Atlanta Jazz Festivals, the Nelson Mandela visits, King Week, the National Black Arts Festivals, the Centennial Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, and as the informal, and sometimes formal, chronicler of activities during the administrations of Atlanta’s four African-American mayors. Currently, she serves as vendor development manager for the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management.

Sue has exhibited through the city since 1985, including the Atlanta Life Insurance annual Afro-American Artists competitions, the National Arts Program Atlanta Municipal Employees exhibitions, Spelman College, City Gallery East, the Hammonds House Galleries, Atlanta Photography Gallery, the APEX Museum, Frames ‘n’ Fine Art Gallery, M’Print Gallery, the Ellis-Chambers Gallery, Changing the Face of Creativity, the Arts Exchange, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, Rush Art Gallery (NYC), Auburn Avenue Research Library, Native Sun Gallery, Paradigm Artspace, Cleveland State University African-American Cultural Center, Salem College Fine Arts Center Gallery, Georgia Perimeter College, the Center for Aids and Humanity, Studioplex, Art Farm, One Night Stand, the Michael C. Carlos Museum, City Gallery Chastain, Mason-Murer Gallery and the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts. Sue’s solo exhibition, Jazz Atlanta Style, was exhibited at the Gilbert House as part of the 1999 Atlanta Jazz Festival and at the Southwest Arts Center (2005). Recent solo exhibitions include In a Mellotone: Portraits in Jazz at the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts (2007) and Sheroes at the Douglass Theatre in Macon (2008). Her portraits of Pearl Primus and Maya Angelou were included in the Fay Gold Selects show at APG. She participated in the Atlanta Master Photographers exhibit at Kennesaw State University and the Reflections in Black exhibit at the Atlanta History Center.

Her work appears regularly in local and national publications. She served as the photo editor and principal photographer for the City’s weekly newspaper City Beat from 1996-2001, and later as principal photographer for the e-newsletter, City Newsbytes (2004). Her photographs have appeared in numerous books, including Generations, Present Tense Past Perfect: 20th Anniversary of the National Black Arts Festival, Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration, Savoring the Salt: the Legacy of Toni Cade Bambara,  Black: A Celebration of a Culture and Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers: 1840 to the Present by Deborah Willis, A Love Supreme by TaRessa and Calvin Stovall, Dr. Richard A. Long’s Black Americana and African Americans, Patricia Bell Scott’s Life Notes and Double Stitch, Andrea Young’s Life Lessons My Mother Taught Me and Andrew Young’s An Easy Burden.

Sue’s portraits of Miles Davis and Pearl Primus are in the permanent collection of Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries. Her work toured in the national exhibit Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, curated by Deborah Willis and will appear in a book based on that exhibition. She is a 2004 recipient of the Paul R. Jones Family Fund’s first national Spiral Award to Artists of Distinction and has been honored for her cultural work by the Concerned Black Clergy, the Black Women Film Preservation Project, the Hammonds House Museum, the Center for Democratic Renewal and the Atlanta City Council.

Sue is a founding member of Sistagraphy™: the collective of african-american women photographers, a member of MOCA and the Atlanta Photography Group. She served for many years on the boards of directors of the National Black Arts Festival, the Atlanta African Film Society and the Metropolitan Atlanta Coalition of 100 Black Women.