Sea Change is a ten year series of annual portraits that began as a study of 17 girls growing up in a small Atlantic Canadian town. Standing by the Bay of Fundy’s vast, tidal expanse, the subjects face the camera as they take stock of and pose with a lobster. Some of the subjects appear cautious, others proud, and some nonchalant—subtly revealing facets of their character.
The lobster is a symbol of their coastal, close knit community, where fishing has sustained life for millennia and now supports global markets.
Like the lobsters they hold—creatures that molt and regrow their shells—each individual undergoes their own process of change from childhood to adolescence and into adulthood.
Sea Change is a meditation on transformation, time, identity, and the forces of family, place, and culture that shape us.
Bio
Susan Lapides is an American photographic artist based in Boston, MA and St. George, NB. Her time-based projects explore adolescence, identity, and place through portraiture and landscape. A former editorial photographer for Smithsonian, Time, and The New York Times, she brings a strong visual narrative to her fine artwork. Her photographs have been exhibited across
North America, including solo shows at the Beaverbrook Musee, who published St. George: ebb and flow, the Saint John Arts Centre and the Griffin Museum of Photography. A Critical Mass Top 200 artist (2019, 2024), her work is in public and private collections including the Beaverbrook, Tides Institute and the Fidelity Corporate Art Collection.
susan@susanlapides.com
www.susanlapides.com
@susanlapides
