Susan Worsham at Candela Gallery

Richmond-based photographer Susan Worsham is opening a major show of her work at Candela Books + Gallery, at 214 West Broad Street, in  Richmond, on January 11th, 2013.

The show is called Bittersweet on Bostwick Lane, and will be up through February 23rd. It features a generous selection of images from Worsham's larger body of work, Some Fox Trails in Virginia, with special emphasis on images that highlight the artist’s relationship to Margaret Daniel, her childhood neighbor.

The folks at Candela Books and Gallery say that "Margaret’s intricate stories and rich memories build layers of meaning for Worsham as she recollects her family history, and heals from the loss of her parents and brother."

Thomas Wolfe claimed, famously, that the Southern artist can't go home again, but Worsham and other first-c;lass Southern photographers like Kathleen Robbins are proving Wolfe wrong, indeed placing a very intimate interaction with their own personal histories and times and places at the heart of their photographic practice.

For Worsham, her friend Margaret is her connection and muse in this process.  She is, for example, the one who named this show. 

Worsham says, “I can remember one particular time when I visited Margaret. I looked out of her large picture window and saw what looked like a nest or hammock of small red berries draped between the winter trees. I asked Margaret what it was. She answered, ‘Why, that’s bittersweet. Bittersweet on Bostwick Lane.’”

Its good to have friends who can give you words as well as connections for the work you are called to make.

This is a good place to note that Worsham has really had lots of good things happening in her career of late.

Last year, for example, her work was featured on NPR's Picture Show blog . She received the Theresa Pollak Prize for Photography from Richmond Magazine and was named one of Oxford American’s “New Superstars of Southern Art."

She was also artist-in-residence at Light Work, the artist-run, non-profit photography and digital media center at Syracuse University, where she had a major show of her work, Bittersweet/Bloodwork up from September 4th through October 19th, 2012, go here.

May 2013 continue to be a great year for Susan Worsham!