NYC Marathon

By far my most favorite day in NYC! Our city comes alive to welcome millions and show them how we like to behave on good days. Good days? Yes, days when we can see past the color of our skin, the cut of our clothes and the borders of the well defined neighborhoods. People smile, cheer and laugh with each other. True the runners amaze me- they really do- but its the people on the side lines that really make this day for me. This was my second year watching race day in Harlem. "Welcome to Harlem", the cheer sung by many to the millions as they cross over the bridge back into Manhattan for the last 5 miles. Harlem may have a terrible reputation, but never on race day.

Running with Books

This is Andre, a man I was hired to photograph this week. Andre is about to do something incredible. He will be running the New York City Marathon this Sunday...with 30 lbs of books. Why? He is being sponsored by Cafescribe.com to promote the use of on-line text books. We all know how heavy text books are, how expensive they are to produce and most importantly- the toll being taken on our environment and planet due to so many tress being cut down. Good luck Andre and thank you Stephen of bugeyedmarketing.com for hiring Your Life Photography.

Lauren & Brendan

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of sharing a beautiful NYC fall morning, in the greatest park, with Lauren and Brendan. It was so much fun working with them! They will be getting married this spring, and I really look forward to photographing their special day! (Pictures can be clicked on to see them larger.)

Fire Island farewell

The 2007 season came to an end for Greg and I last weekend. This was the scene over the water as we were on the ferry. Fire Island is an incredible place only hours from NYC but it always feel as if you have gone far. A must for anyone who loves the beach and great friendly people.

Boards- Ladies night!

Boards is a magazine that is located up in Toronto, my buddy here on the right, Jonathan Block- Verk is the vice- president. This night was special for a few reasons. First the night was dedicated to two of the leading ladies in advertising (left and the blonde below)- a world of mostly men...hmmm, sounds like photography. Second, it was great to photograph Jonathan in a different way...a few years ago I photographed him and his wife Vanessa as she was in labor with their first child, Stella Brooklyn. His family, now including Oscar, are throughout my web site. They are an amazing family...and they photograph very well! This night was also really cool because people in advertising LOVE getting their pictures taken, quite different than some other industries! I was literally at times being pulled on by my sleeve to come take a picture! Most of them inquired about which magazine issue they would be on the cover of! Great night dedicated to incredible women!

Emotions at Columbia

I saw Columbia University in a whole new light today. The streets were packed with protesters as Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was scheduled to be a guest lecturer.

At times I have wondered about how photography would be if it was coupled with sounds and or smells. Today was a day of sounds. Yelling, chanting, arguing and beeping. The sounds I heard were divided mostly into 3 categories- angry at Columbia, angry at Bush, and angry at Mahmoud's leadership and ideals. The atmosphere was very tense, political debates were erupting everywhere. One man was screaming at another man who was anti Bush, a Jewish man was yelling at a woman who was defending Iran. The only angle I did not see being defended today was Columbia. It seemed that the crowd was able to agree on just that, that the invitation should not have been extended. After watching this evenings news it seems to me that President Ahmadinejad said all the things that he should say, but we could have expected that- the man is not dumb- he is just not kind. At least not how we measure kindness here in the U.S.

Columbia University

You can click on this square image above to see the pictures larger- or if the slide show is working below you can see them there. (the slide shows have had a mind of their own this week)

Lisa and John

Note the flying vail!!!

Lisa and John

Lisa and John

Last Saturday I had the incredible pleasure of photographing Lisa and John's wedding. The wedding was so unique, starting at a quaint little church on Fire Island, then onto a ferry boat that brought everyone to the location of the reception on Long Island. The whole day was so interesting to photograph, from the dramatic turn of the weather for the best, to Lisa having a twin sister, to the span of generations getting down at the reception to the incredible band! Many thanks to Lisa and John for picking Your Life Photography to capture their incredible day! A slideshow is below to show you some of the images from the wedding day.

Baby Vera

Last week Friday I was able to photograph baby Vera. She was just 3 weeks old, beautiful and has a great nature. Proud parents Mara and Eli were so easy to work with and were incredibly open to ideas. Mara is an actress so she loved to be directed! The whole experience was wonderful! Thank you Mara, Eli and baby Vera. Plus I love the name! My grandmother's name was Vera too!

The beginning...

E-M-P-H-Y-S-E-M-A, the winning word during an American Lung Association spelling bee contest. The prize, a little Kodak camera. I was 13 years old and had no idea the impact that camera would have on me and the rest of my life.

Having a camera and taking pictures gave me purpose. It was like having a permission slip to avenues that I would never have gone down without it.

Starting 9th grade was tough. I was as skinny as you could get, I had big poofy hair, braces/ headgear, and as awkward as one could be. The one thing that I really looked forward to was my photography class. My teacher Brad Curcio was amazing. He taught me so many photography and darkroom skills. Some that are no longer used today, such as rolling your own paper in drums, but skills I am so pleased to have. As annoying as rolling your own paper was, he gave me a foundation to photography that enabled me to truly understand the process. 3 years later I was still taking his classes and it was so much of his encouragement and support that made me consider going to art school in NYC.

Off to Pratt Institute, an art school in NYC for 5 incredible years. What I learned there was invaluable and most of it had nothing to do with photography! (Although the program was great, I think that most of us know that a huge part of college is learning about yourself.)

It was during this time at Pratt that I also had the fortunate experience to go to Kenya for a semester abroad. Living in Kenya was something that will shape me as a person and a photographer for the rest of my life. The people of Kenya have a life that is much simpler than ours. They do not have all the material items we have here in the US, but they have things that cannot be bought. Their pocessions are their culture, kindness, generosity and love for one another, to name just a few. I often wonder if we got it all wrong over here. Our quest for "things" does not always lead us to the happiness we desire. The people of Kenya had an incredible aura of true peace and happiness.

If I ever had to give one piece if advice it would be to go live, not just travel to, but to live amongst people of another culture. It is during that time where you can really judge yourself, learn and appreciate whats really important in life. This world is filled with so many different ways of life, we have so much to learn from one another.

Having come back from Kenya I was curious about America. I had never been further west than Ohio and felt that is was time to see this country. For 3 months I traveled amongst the different landscapes of America. It is incredible how much this country changes as you journey across it. I had a running photo project of taking peoples picture as they pass you or you pass them on the highway. There is that fraction of a moment where many people will look right at you as you pass. Route 66 was an incredible road to carry out this project.

It was during this trip that my life took a drastic turn, leading me to now know, that you never can predict what will happen in your life. Every person you meet or experience you have can be an open door and could lead you to all sorts of places. This is what happened to me...

A professor of mine from Pratt gave me a book to read on the trip out west. It was called "In This Sign" and was about a hearing girl that had Deaf parents. At this time I was not familiar with deafness nor sign language. About a month into my trip I was sitting in Berkley Park California on a bench reading my book. That is when I looked up and saw two guys my age sitting at a table having a game of chess. They were Deaf! I remember so well seeing them use their hands to communicate. Their sign language was so beautiful and fluid. Like the non-shy person that I am, I approached them with my book. I was so excited I had try to show them this book I was reading. They started signing to me and quickly learned that I did not know sign language. They whipped out a pen and we used the last few pages of the book to write to each other. We had some things in common, they had also just graduated from college and they were also driving across America. Yet we could not communicate, and that made me question a lot of things. We said our good byes and from that moment on I was obsessed with the idea of learning sign language. Oh the soapboxes I stood on during these times as I preached about how we all need to be able to communicate with each other! As soon as I got back to NYC I signed up for sign language classes.

During this time of learning sign language, I was a NYC nanny! I intended to only take the job for 1 year as I figured out my life, but instead I was paired up with an incredible family that made leaving quite difficult. I worked for them for 4 years. It was during these years that I had my longest running photography project, thanks to the openness of the parents. I was able to document the common days, the ins and outs of the lives of two sisters. Danielle and Eve, were and still are, so loving to each other- yet as different in personality as two sister could have been. I met them when Danielle was 6 and Eve was 4. Danielle was a true tom boy- wanting nothing to do with the color pink, and well Eve, if she was decked from head to toe in pink it was a great day! When I left they were 10 and 8 and after all the time we spent together it was very difficult to move on. We all grew together and the photographs of them are pictures that I will always cherish. I tend to think that unless I have my own children, I will never know my subject matter better than those two girls. They forgot about my camera, even though it was always there, and that is how I was able to capture moments from them that would be impossible from a one hour session.

When I left it was to pursue a Masters in Deaf Education from Columbia University's Teachers College. If someone would have asked me the day I set out to drive across the country if I would become a teacher of the Deaf I would have laughed in their face. I was a photographer...you see, you never know where life will lead you if you let it.

In the fall of 2002 I started working at St. Francis, a school for the Deaf in Crown Heights Brooklyn. For 5 years I taught 5th and 6th grade. (If those 2 guys only knew the impact they had on me.) My years at St. Francis were wonderful but not easy, teaching is one of the hardest jobs there is-I'm sure of it. I was teaching reading, writing, math, social studies, health and science, not photography! Working with children that are Deaf are very different than working with hearing children. Most children that are Deaf come from families that are hearing. That means that they are the only ones at home that cannot hear. Sadly many of these families do not learn sign language for various reasons. Leaving the Deaf child to often feel isolated at home. On a positive side, the Deaf child usually loves coming to school and is always motivated to learn. Imagine being at home where no one fully understands you, nor do you fully understand them and then you come to school and you can communicate with everyone! The children at St. Francis love coming to school. Their daily enthusiasm was very contagious.

If you're wondering, if you're even still reading, I did not give up photography during this time. Photography became a wonderful tool to use with the older kids to fuel their motivation to read and write. Using digital cameras, we would go on trips, each kid with a camera in hand. They would shoot away and then we would use the edited images to create books about their experience. The kids loved making photo books and using photographic images greatly increased their motivation to write and then read.

During my 4th year at St. Francis I moved an hour and 15 minutes away to Harlem. Commuting everyday on the NYC subways at rush hour was slowly wearing me down. That year I also took a 3rd job tutoring a child. The 3 jobs and the commute was too much for me and I made the extremely difficult decision to leave St. Francis. I am still getting my teaching fill in by working with Simon, an incredible boy who is Deaf and faces the battles of Autism. He too loves working with photographic images!
Leaving me to date, the end of the summer of 2007. My new web site just got aired live Friday night and I am so excited about it. It was a long time coming but I hope that is was worth it. I have done all sorts of photography this summer, from architecture, new borns, travel, and weddings. It is very exciting being ones own boss. I hope to meet all kinds of new people and have new experiences as I set aside more time now to focus on the original dream...being a photographer.

My Goals..

When I set out to take photographs, be it for myself, for your wedding, or for your new born baby- my goal is to be able to create images that tell stories. Hence the slogan- photographic storytelling.

I like to take it all in and then manipulate the rectangles of the camera to show case what I see. I love the big obvious things but I also love the details. The wrinkles of a babies feet, the line created by their chubby arm pit, the letter left for the bride by the groom, the little old lady up in the window watching the day go by.

There are stories everywhere waiting to be captured, waiting to be told. Doesn't everyone love a good story? We have been hearing stories since the day we were born. My goal is to create the images of your life to help you tell your stories- to your family, friends and one day to your grand children.

Susannah Dambmann

Education

Columbia University- Teacher's College
Masters in Deaf Education

School of International Training
Kenya, Africa
Semester Abroad

Pratt Institute
BFA photography
minor art education

Pricing

Every situation is unique. How could I possibly come up with a set price for and apply it to yours? I don't work that way, I can't work that way. This is how I like to work...

You tell me the situation; how many hours, how far, what kind of event, if you want one or two photographers etc. and then I can create a package to discuss with you. Wedding packages start at 2,000, but are flexible to suit your needs.

Possibly not the answer you were looking for, but in the long run it will probably work in your favor!

Cheers!
Susannah

The Country Fair

Greg and I went camping upstate. On our second day we went to a local country fair. This little town called Neversink is only 96 miles away from NYC, but to me it felt like it was worlds away. The people of this town were incredible and the love and passion they have for their animals, or pets was on a level I had never witnessed before.