Bio
Susan Moffat is a fine-art documentary photographer based in Massachusetts, USA. Her social-documentary photography explores culture and humanity—both physical and emotional—while examining the relationships between people and their environments.
Her work involves the exploration of culture and humanity—from coal of northeastern Pennsylvania to the Wampanoag Tribe on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Most recently she was chosen by the VII Foundation, a world-wide organization committed to in-depth journalism covering the crucial issues of our time, to create a 12-week photography project. Fish . Science . Human: a complicated circle grew from that connection. She strongly believes in the power of visual imagery to change the way we see and the future of our planet.
Susan Moffat has studied under Maggie Steber, Amber Bracken, Maciek Nabrdalik, Emmet Gowin, Danny Wilcox Frasier, Olivia Parker, and many others. She has exhibited in galleries in the USA; Quebec, Canada; Lisbon, Portugal; and the Canary Islands, Spain.
Current Project
Fish . Science . Human: a complicated circle, focuses on the intricate connection between fish, science, and humans. As the culture of the people who fish is changing, science is at risk, and humanity struggles, her images unveil the human side of fishing.
Ongoing Projects
Don't Stand Still, a Wampanoag Tribe, focuses on the profound culture and history of the Wampanoag Tribe, located in southeastern Massachusetts. As they struggle to hold onto their deeply-rooted culture and be sovereign within a larger society, they maintain sustainability in a world of a climate and politics in crisis. For thousands of years, the Tribe has had a respect and close relationship with the land being threatened today. I begin to reveal the strength and struggles of their present-day lives.
Chasing Coal, is a personal interpretation and search to discover and make sense of my roots and the reality of my mythologized ideas. I went back to my homeland, the coal country in northeastern PA where my grandfather was one of three brothers who owned Moffat Coal Company. They inherited it from their father who, in 1906, began as a coal miner.
Taylor, home to the ruins of Moffat Coal Company, is a small town in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Etched in my memory are radios playing a jingle that ended with "You'll enjoy the best in heating, live in comfort day and night... Moffat Premium Anthracite." I remember driving past the massive culm dump in Dunmore on the way into Scranton, the sulfur smell of it burning a place in my hippocampus.
Through the lens, the work shows the area's struggles and strengths and examines both sides, including the beauty of crumbling historic architecture and landscape,and the hard lines etched into the faces of the people. I continue to unveil the story.
- Cranberry Land, focuses on cranberry harvesting, Cape Cod, MA
- Environmental Portraiture: Work for Hire, finding the essence away from the studio
- A Few Streets,street photography
- Iceland is Not Always What Appears
- Thailand and Qatar
- New Orleans Not Always Mardi Gras
- Latin America