Suellen Cook

Digital Photographic Artist

I am a photographer of the imagination and the impossible. Making art feeds my soul. If I’m not creating I become restless and frustrated. I like to tell stories through images that spill out randomly from deep within my imagination. I make pictures about things rather than take pictures of things…

My art is my way of visualising what I’m thinking, what my imagination has to say about that, how I feel about it and what I know and feel I need to tell you about.

My art is a process of weaving together lots of different things, places and objects, until they sit comfortably with each other, and tell their story of why they are together, like an old married couple silently reading in front of the winter fire on a Sunday evening. You can sense the comfortableness and familiarity and at the same time be suspicious of the existence of a certain tension.

Step inside a Suellen Saidee Cook image, and all at once see beauty and whimsy, sense the familiar and then out of the corner of your eye become intensely aware of the unfamiliar, the puzzle of almost impossible situations that are strangely believable. Step through the glass and be surrounded by a reality re-invented that ignites your imagination. Look for the answers to the unspoken questions. Can you step out again, back to your previous life and not be drawn back in or changed even just a little?

 I am a Master Photographer of the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers (AIPP) My photography has been awarded not only with numerous AIPP awards at both State and National levels, but many other prestigious photography awards around the world.

 I spent time at Art School exploring photographic expression and graphic design but I chose to spend a decade or more completing a PhD in marine biology and working as a research scientist and environmental consultant. However, something was missing; the opportunity to express myself, my imagination. After a marine science voyage to the Southern Ocean my interest in photography was reignited.

Since late in 2011 I have been passionate about making art using only my own photographs. A finished artwork consist of many individual photographs woven together in sometimes hundreds of layers to give life to the final image.

I absolutely love what I do, I am passionate about it and I’m fortunate to be able pursue this path.