Suzy Lake

Suzy Lake (born June 24, 1947) is an American-Canadian artist based in Toronto, Canada, who is known for her work as a photographer, performance artist and video producer.

Using a range of media, Lake explores topics including identity, beauty, gender and aging.

She is regarded as a pioneering feminist artist and a staunch political activist.

Lake was born June 24, 1947, in Detroit, Michigan.

During this period, she became involved with the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s.

She began her fine art studies at Wayne State University and Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, from 1965 to 1968.

She also witnessed the Detroit Race Riots of 1967.

Soon after, in 1968 Lake immigrated to Canada with her husband to escape the Vietnam War draft.

Settling in Montreal, she found herself amidst social upheaval as a result of the Quiet Revolution.

Originally a painter, Lake in Montreal began experimenting with photography, using herself as a model.

She taught at the Montreal Museum School (1969–1978) and was mentored by the Minimalist artist, Guido Molinari.

She was active in the early conceptualist art scene there.

Much of her work in the 1970s featured herself as a subject, including works such as Choreographed Puppets, 1976–77.

In 1971, Lake became a co-founder (with twelve other artists) of the artist-run gallery Véhicule Art Inc. Lake's work during this period was influenced by photo-based artists (including Les Levine) who were using the camera to represent an idea rather than documenting reality.

This was also a period when Lake began to concentrate on the subject of identity.

In her 1973 series of photographs entitled A One Hour (Zero) Conversation with Allan B., she is the subject as the camera records her expression at various intervals of a candid conversation with a friend.

To emphasize her expressions, Lake used white face make-up.

She then invited her friends and family to circle which of the photographs most represented her personality.

Lake moved to Toronto in 1978, and became involved in the growing contemporary photography community.

She completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at Concordia University in 1980.

Lake taught at the University of Guelph from the 1980s until her retirement in 2008, when she was given the title Professor Emerita.

Using costumes, make-up and props, Lake creates photo-based self-portraits, often by assuming new identities.

Her adopted personas highlight the possibilities for deception involved in posing for the camera.

An example is "Suzy Lake As Patty Hearst", a project Lake made in collaboration with Bill Jones, featuring the artist as the eponymous Hearst.

American artist Cindy Sherman has cited Lake's photo-performance as an influence on her work.

Suzy Lake has twenty-five portfolios of her artwork.

Each deals with politics of gender, identity and beauty.

She creates art to express how what she does relates to what she is or to what people think she is.

She uses her photographs, videos, and performances to draw attention to social norms and constraints.

Lake explained in an interview that she always uses herself in her art because this is how she develops understanding of social restrictions for women.

Lake uses art to control her own representation.

Her earlier On Stage photos were influenced by Detroit.

In these, Lake photographed herself as a wife and mother but later she wanted to make work to reverse that.

In Montréal, Lake observed a marked power difference between genders, and she stated that women have a "glass ceiling" that led to her Choreographed Puppet photos.

More recently, Lake introduced a new vision of beauty by displaying her older body in her portfolio entitled "Beauty and the Aging Body."

Lake lived in Montréal for about ten years.

From the mid-1980s until 1994, Lake ceased appearing as the subject of her work as she turned her attention to more direct forms of camera activism.

Among her notable works from this period is a series of photographs she created in collaboration with the Teme-Augama Anishnabai Band of Bear Island in Temagami, Ontario, to bring greater public awareness to their land claim.

Lake continues to make work about the female body, now focusing on ageing.

She exhibits her work worldwide.