New Brunswick’s Fundy Coast has always been a place of movement. The massive tides are so integral to the region’s identity that their ebb and flow defines the character of the place.

St. George has seen more than its fair share of the ebb and flow of people and prospects — the typical story of incoming trade and riches, followed by dwindling opportunities. But interest has recently returned to St. George, drawn there by an appreciation for non-urban locales of stark natural beauty, affordability, and down-to-earth people.

Photographer Susan Lapides has been visiting St. George for over twenty-five years. Her deep commitment to capturing the character of place is brilliantly matched by her innate sense of composition and colour. Her work testifies to the fact that the everyday can be mesmerizing if we are lucky enough to have the right interpreter behind the lens. In Lapides’s photographs, the dusk cobalt blues of the ocean and sky become symphonic and a windswept cliff with a lighthouse, dog, lacrosse player, and tree appear as powerful and enigmatic as an Edward Hopper painting.

La côte de Fundy a toujours été un lieu de mouvements. Les marées d’une amplitude hors du commun ont marqué l’identité de cette région du Nouveau-Brunswick, dont le caractère s’est forgé au gré des vagues.

Il y en a eu, des vagues, à St. George! De gens, de perspectives et de fortunes. L’histoire typique d’un essor commercial et de richesses qui abondent, puis déclinent. Et voilà que St. George suscite un regain d’intérêt notable, alimenté par la beauté brute des environs de la ville, des prix abordables et le charme des gens sans prétention.

Susan Lapides fréquente St. George depuis plus de vingt-cinq ans, appareil photo à l’œil. Sa détermination à saisir la personnalité du lieu n’a d’égal que son sens inné de la composition et de la couleur. Ses clichés prouvent que le quotidien peut être fascinant, pour peu que l’interprète derrière la lentille en soit parfaitement conscient. Le bleu cobalt de l’océan et du ciel au crépuscule a une nette tonalité symphonique. Le phare, le chien, le joueur de crosse et l’arbre qui animent une falaise balayée par le vent évoquent autant de présence et de mystère qu’un tableau d’Edward Hopper.

Susan Lapides is a photographer who creates time-based projects focusing on adolescence and place. Through her portraits and landscapes, she examines social, cultural, and community issues.

A graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Lapides had an extensive career as an editorial photographer for national publications including Smithsonian, Life, Time, Forbes, the New York Times, and People. She won numerous awards from the American Society of Media Photographers and has photographed luminaries including President Barack Obama and Rose Kennedy.

Lapides has held solo exhibitions at Sunbury Shores (St. Andrews, NB), the Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Fredericton, NB), and the Griffin Museum (Boston, MA). Her work has been included in many group exhibitions including New York’s Foley Gallery, the Newport Art Museum, the Brand Library & Art Center in Los Angeles, and San Diego’s Oceanside Museum of Art. Her award-winning photography is in numerous collections. She resides in Boston, Massachusetts, and in St. George, New Brunswick.

Susan Lapides est une photographe. Ses projets, ancrés dans le temps, mettent en valeur l’adolescence et les lieux. Ses portraits et ses paysages rendent compte des enjeux sociaux, culturels et communautaires.

Diplômée de la School of the Museum of Fine Arts de l’Université Tufts, Lapides est photographe narrative et d’opinion pour des publications comme le Smithsonian, Life, Time, Forbes, le New York Times, et People. Maintes fois récompensée par l’American Society of Media Photographers, elle a à son actif les portraits de personnalités comme le président Barack Obama et Rose Kennedy.

Lapides a exposé en solo à Sunbury Shores (St. Andrews, N.-B.), au Musée des beaux-arts Beaverbrook (Fredericton, N.-B.) et au Griffin Museum (Boston, MA). Elle a également participé à de nombreuses expositions collectives, notamment à la Foley Gallery de New York, au Newport Art Museum, au Brand Library & Art Center de Los Angeles et au Oceanside Museum of Art de San Diego. Souvent primées, ses photographies figurent dans de nombreuses collections. Elle vit en partie à Boston, au Massachusetts, et à St. George, au Nouveau-Brunswick.

Susan Lapides' profile page

Architect and art historian John Leroux takes a holistic view of his profession, seeing beyond buildings themselves into the cultural, intellectual and physical landscapes to which they contribute. Born in Fredericton, Leroux graduated from the McGill School of Architecture in 1994 and completed a Masters degree in Canadian Art History at Concordia University in 2002. He has worked at several award-winning architecture firms in Toronto, Atlanta and Fredericton, and also teaches at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design and St. Thomas University. He has won many awards for architectural and public art projects throughout Canada, and has pursued various creative disciplines such as set design for Theatre New Brunswick. A contributing architecture columnist for the Telegraph-Journal and Canadian Architect magazine, he is also the author of three books on New Brunswick architecture: A Fredericton Alphabet, Building Capital: A Guide to Fredericton’s Historic Landmarks, and Building New Brunswick: an architectural history.

John Leroux's profile page