Susan Patrice is the Principal Consultant of Makers Circle, an organization that sparks change through the creative process. As a documentary photographer, arts educator, and community facilitator, Susan has been using her talents to transform people and communities over the last 12 years. Susan has supported communities worldwide to address problems such as gender equality and racial equity through photography-centered, arts-inspired programs.  At the heart of Susan’s work is the desire to help people around the world tell their stories to touch lives and inspire action.

In today’s episode, Susan and I reflect on our relationship with our creative practices. We discuss why the creative process is a practice that unfolds over time. We illustrate how Susan created a collaborative and intimate relationship with nature and how this impacted her work as a photographer. We reveal the reason Susan started hand-building cameras and what inspired her to pursue photography. We also explain how one’s creative process affects their relationship with others as well as highlight the power of photography to engage us with the world.

 

“Photography requires us to engage with the world. It allows us to be in this middle place between self and other, or spirit and matter. It’s a magical medium.” - Susan Patrice

 

This week on Relationships! Let’s Talk About It:

• Why Susan thinks the creative process is a practice
• The similarities between photography and dating
• How Susan’s creative process changes her relationship with people
• A recent experience that taught Susan about collaborating with nature
• Why photography is a contemplative practice
• Creating a collaborative and intimate relationship with the world
• How our relationship to our own bodies affect our relationship to nature
• The reason Susan started hand-building cameras that took round photos
• How Susan’s relationship with nature influenced her photographs
• What Susan’s photography projects teach her about love and relationships
• The danger of considering the creative process as a spiritual process
• Poverty porn and the conversations between photography and consent
• How photography reveals one’s capacity to love
• Translating the difficult moments of life into creativity

 

Resources Mentioned:

• Why Communicating Consent Matters in Healthy Relationships
• To Be Healed by the Earth by Warren Grossman

 

Connect with Susan Patrice:

• Susan Patrice
• Susan Patrice on Facebook
• Susan Patrice on LinkedIn

 

Let’s Talk About It!

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Theme music “These Streets” provided by Adi the Monk