Alex & Petra Family
Private Portrait Commissions
In addition to her studio practice, Susan kae Grant accepts a limited number of private shadow portrait commissions each year. She enjoys providing a collaborative experience for patrons to create individualized portraits inspired by memory, style, and stories.
Grant’s unique style of portraiture is known to transcend time, age and fashion while harkening back to the history of photography.
Each portrait communicates an undeniable presence - a sense of individuality - an authentic sense of spirit that was once there and still remains.
Her patrons fondly refer to their images as legacy portraits and family heirlooms that mark time. They adorn their walls in the present and are intended to be passed down through the family for future generations to enjoy.
Petra
In-progress Studio Set
For each portrait, Grant literally creates a custom-built shadow set in the studio for the patron to step into.
Inspired by patron interviews, Grant creates the backgrounds from an assortment of found objects and fabrics specifically chosen to evoke the quintessential personality - the essence - of each person or family being portrayed.
The final portraits are captured with a high resolution camera and can be made live on-site in the studio or in collaboration with the patron via Zoom.
Tetiana
To create the final images Grant employs digital technologies to process and custom print her images as 20” x 25” archival pigment prints on 100% cotton paper. Additional sizes and hand-bound accordion books are also available.
Grant’s Shadow Portraits have been featured in Vogue and Time and exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the Unites States. The formal execution can be traced back stylistically to her fascination with using the shadow as a metaphor in her Night Journey and Conduit Portrait series.
Shadow Portrait Commissions
Contact Susan kae Grant
Contact Conduit Gallery