Her main focus after college was learning technical skills esp. printing. She worked with a number of well-known photographers, including Sally Mann. From this she credits her skills today as they are fundamental to the end result of good photos. She is slowly moving into digital as she has been shooting on a large format film camera for many years and didn't see the need to go beyond that. She now enjoys the different possibilities and speed of some of the workings with digital over film. She loves to print onto large, maybe 30" x 36" highly glossy paper. The very short focal range in each photo is a distinguishing feature of all the photos.
Her first large body of work that I recognised was with Peeps which are the marshmallow edible animals produced for holidays such as Easter and Halloween. She put the Peeps into natural scenes such as bushes, grass and snow and worked with getting interesting images. Whitson said she used to travel with an array of Peeps in her car, so that wherever she was, if she saw an interesting setting, she could work straight away.
Next she moved onto working with toys, because she often was aware of the backyard evidence of children, but no children when she lived in Rhode Island. Her shots included toys such as plastic lambs, a fox, a fawn and birds. The images had a surreal look and feel and were very nostalgic, though she did say she had had no pre-thought of narrative or nostalgia when she arranged them. Whitson still travels with Peeps in the trunk of her car, just in case, but the animals are her main focus now. Very interesting seeing her work.
http://www.inliquid.com/artist/arthur_whitson_susan/arthur_whitson.php
you gave a nice thorough summery and I especially liked the link since you got me interested in see what you saw.
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