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Photographer Susan Dillon has traveled the world and won an award for a photograph she’d hoped she’d snapped at just the right moment, Yangtze Boatman. Dillon was on a trip to China and says it was one of the most difficult shots she’s taken—a boatman waiting for his turn to guide a tourist longboat in a stream off the Yangtze River.
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Dillon says the longboats carried about 16 people and were guided by two standing boatmen with paddles at the stern. The boats could only turn around at the top of the stream by men pulling ropes on land.
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“I had spotted this boatman on the dock awaiting his turn to paddle a boat while watching us,” says Dillon. “He was dressed in a flimsy blue uniform and handmade sandals. In the seconds it took me to climb into the boat, I grabbed this shot, never expecting to get it, but hoping.”
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The resting boatman was looking at her, and so the photo is more of a portrait—one that took a blue ribbon at a contest in Mountain View.
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Dillon, a Morgan Hill resident for 31 years, says she had to work up to the point of getting her work shown. “I recall asking a 26-year-old kid named Maurizio [Cutrignelli] to hang my very first show at his restaurant’s old location.” In 1991, Dillon helped found Gallery Morgan Hill, but it later dissolved in 2007. She is currently the treasurer of the Valle del Sur Art Guild, which helps artists place their work in restaurants, community centers and other locations. Dillon will present a new exhibition at Maurizio’s Restaurant, now through Dec. 2., at its current location on First Street off Monterey in Morgan Hill—including photographs from Italy.
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“My business grew slowly,” she says. As part of her long history as a working artist in the area, Dillon has been selling note cards featuring local landmarks and coast scenes at BookSmart in Morgan Hill since the late 1980s. However, she never took portraits, shooting only one wedding before deciding that kind of photography wasn’t for her.
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“I entered lots of art shows and competitions. Then I stopped doing that because I was happy with my work, and I didn’t feel the need to have it judged anymore.” In the mid ‘90s, one of her photos was on the cover of the program for the Gilroy Garlic Festival—a wine glass with gold streamers coming out of it.
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While Dillon does photograph local sites, most of her images come from her extensive national and international travels. “The Old World has a look I find interesting,” she says. In recent months, Dillon has shown some of her Old World Western European work at Morgan Hill’s Centennial Recreation Center, and a Southwest exhibit of works shot in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at Sinaloa Restaurant—also in conjunction with Valle del Sur.
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In 2015, Dillon starting printing her photos on canvas. “I like doing old buildings and stairways because of the texture and composition,” she says.
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As an artist, Dillon says she’s always striving to do better. “There is no one photograph I consider a complete failure, because I am always learning and hopefully improving from my mistakes.”
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Dillon says she always wanted to be an artist. In her youth, she loved to draw and took painting lessons, but she took a more practical route out of school and worked as a medical technologist for five years.
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She got her inspiration in photography from her sister, who had been in Japan teaching at schools for the Department of Defense and came back with a camera. When her sister started taking pictures of Dillon’s children, Dillon thought, “I can do that.” That was 40 years ago.
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After buying her own camera, Dillon’s children quickly tired of being the subjects of her photography habit, so she began to expand her education on the subject. She took classes and met friends from Carmel with whom she went to Vermont for a conference.
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She found great inspiration from Imogene Cunningham, studying her work deeply. Dorothea Lange’s famous Dust Bowl images—particularly the desperate expressions on the children’s faces—served as another muse for Dillon’s work. Dillon was also drawn to a painter, John Register, who had a show in the San Jose Museum of simple subjects in paintings, people looking alone.
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Dillon says she has always been drawn to simple composition. But beyond that, there’s a feeling of isolation or loss in these artists’ work that also exists in Dillon’s. In Amused, Dillon’s clown is not engaged with patrons, but lost in a reverie while seated by an archway in Germany. Likewise, in Dillon’s Holy Ladies? the subject is a group of beggars in Florence, Italy, who dress like nuns in whiteface—hoping to gain more attention and sympathy from the crowds.
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As Dillon walked through the crowded streets, she’s looked for what was drawing everyone’s interest, intending to get the best shot without drawing the her subject’s attention.
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Such effort is evident in her award-winning photo of the Yangtze Boatman. Dillon says she was caught in the act of shooting a photo—she didn’t realize it until she arrived home from her trip. One may have trouble finding her work anywhere online. “I’m not very good at marketing,” she admits, adding that she’s working on a new website.
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When she’s not photographing people, Dillon says, “Instead of the big picture, I like more angles and lines. My design is more simple, but I need a focal point with angles.” A boat on a beach in Ireland, Water Weary, captures this essence. Another piece, Lismore Castle, Ireland, shows a castle taken through a window, providing more angles. “There are lots of photos of doors and windows. It’s like trying to find something artistic within it; like the corner of it or the doorknob. I also did this at the Mission in San Juan Bautista.”
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She continues: “Men love to be photographers because they love all equipment. Lots of lenses.” But Dillon works with only two lenses. “To me, it’s what you see and what you capture. It’s not about the equipment.”
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Dillon photographs with either a 18-55mm or 55-200mm zoom lens. When it’s sunny, she uses a polarizer, which deepens the intensity of the color. “It’s like putting sunglasses on your camera,” she says. “I sometimes do a little bit of Photoshop on my computer, but only to keep it natural looking. Sometimes I do nothing. Sometimes just to brighten color a bit.”
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Dillon says her eyes are her best tool, “being aware—seeing. Besides my tripod, I have been happy with two lenses most of the time. I shoot mostly in the early morning and late in the day for the best light.”
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Among the places she’s been, Dillon says China was amazing.
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“Hidden from the world for centuries by the Great Wall, it has preserved its history and architecture in the Forbidden City as well as other historic places,” she says. “The water city, Suzhou, reminds one of Venice on a small scale. Xian has the terra-cotta warriors. The country has so many beautiful and unique subjects and ancient ruins, all wonderful photo ops. It can be overwhelming!”
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But there are still places Dillon still longs to capture.
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“Cuba is said to be like going back in time,” she says. “The diverse architecture of Havana and its Colonial, Spanish and Moorish influences offer much in the way of design and texture, which I love. I feel Cuba would be a fascinating place to visit as well as an opportunity for me as a photographer.”
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It took Dillon a long time to get used to a digital camera after she switched. “I was afraid of taking too many pictures and using up all the film,” she says. She had to retrain herself.
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To capture an image, Dillon doesn’t alter or move anything; she physically moves herself around the subject. You don’t set up the shot, she says. “The shot is there, and you try to find it.” She finds ways to be creative in her choice of angle or subject. For instance, she did an entire show based on a bicycle theme from multiple locations.
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Dillon’s a bit of a wordsmith, too, as seen with her bicycle pieces. “I try to be clever in titles,” she says, such as the old-fashioned, rusty bicycle with a basket of flowers called FTD. Another in the bicycle series, Basket Case, has a tilted blue basket that’s nearly falling off. A photo of a bicycle with flat tires, parked against the front of a home in Ireland, is called Flats.
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Over the years, Dillon says she’s simplified her approach to composition even more than her influences have. “I think I’ve realized that the whole picture isn’t as interesting as part of it. That’s why I’m not a landscaper. It’s hard,” she explains. “We were in Denali National Park, Alaska. You can’t capture the feeling of the hugeness of the feeling of being there.” She looks forward to seeing her photos of Alaska. But with a recent trip to Portland and Victoria, she hasn’t yet had time to take a good look at what a small fraction of an ancient glacier may look like from the other side of her lens.
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Susan Dillon’s work will be on display as part of Valle del Sur’s Art About Town series. Catch her photography now through Dec. 2 at Maurizio’s Restaurant, at 25 E Main Street, Morgan Hill.
