artist's biography
SUSAN WILSON is a professional photographer, writer, and educator who lives in Cambridge and Wellfleet, Massachusetts.
Since leaving the Museum School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, she has exhibited her artwork in dozens of one-woman and group shows, and gained national recognition for her images of musicians and other performing artists. Her photos can be seen in newspapers, magazines, books, CD covers, posters, postcards, websites, and other media across the U.S.
Susan is also well known for creating and performing moving slide shows and slide lectures on topics as diverse as Boston history, Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, the Mexican Day of the Dead, and surviving childhood abuse. She has served on the faculty of the New England School of Photography since 1982, and is the originator and director of NESOP's acclaimed Crosscurrents seminar series.
AND IN HER SPARE TIME ...
Susan has long held a special affection for Boston history. The recipient of a B.A. (Phi Beta Kappa), M.A., and A.B.D. (All But Dissertation) in history from Tufts University, Susan taught history at both the secondary school and college levels before moving into a career in journalism and photojournalism. Her work regularly appeared in the Boston Globe between 1978 and 1996; during the last nine of those years, she wrote and illustrated popular monthly columns for the Globe on fascinating places, people, and events from Boston history.
Since 1994 Susan has been writing and photographing books on Boston history, which include Boston Sites and Insights, Literary Trail of Greater Boston, Garden of Memories: A Guide to Historic Forest Hills, The Omni Parker House: A Brief History of America's Longest Continuously Operating Hotel, and A Brief History of Beacon Press. She was a contributing author for Boston and the American Revolution and Symphony Hall: The First 100 Years.
Susan has long been associated with, and consulted for, Boston's historic walking tours, including the Freedom Trail, the Black Heritage Trail, and the tour group, Boston By Foot.
She is a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Boston Athenaeum, an ambassador for historic Forest Hills Cemetery, and a board member and regular contributor to the Boston Women's Heritage Trail, Boston by Foot, and the Boston History Collaborative.
With her broad array of contemporary and historic images, and a slew of wonderful stories from Boston's rich cultural heritage, Susan has become a popular speaker in area lecture halls, libraries, historic sites, and classrooms.
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