From exotic dancers to politicians, women in prison, people in storefront churches and light on water, Atlanta artist Marilyn Suriani saw the beauty in everything and everyone she photographed.
“She was fearless, and she blazed a trail,” says her longtime friend Billy Howard, a documentary photographer. “People would put down all their defenses because she came across as authentic immediately. Her death is a huge loss for the photography community. Everyone loved her.”
The 40-year-long career of Marilyn Suriani ended Sept. 12, when she died at age 73 from Alzheimer’s disease. She was the Philadelphia daughter of Rita Scarcelli Suriani and Adrian Joseph Suriani, and she remained a South Philly girl — tenacious and tough, not suffering fools lightly, her friends said. She once said that her degree in psychology and sociology from Millersville University “helped her understand people better,” says Howard.
In addition to documentary photography, she did portraits, nature, abstract and travel photography. Her photos of Barack and Michelle Obama and the late congressman John Lewis are revealing, showing her ability to put people at ease. She studied with storied photographer Dennis Darling, who said, “Marilyn was a sponge absorbing everything she could about art, design and photography. She soon realized that photography could become a key to open any door her curiosity led her to.”
Credit: Unknown
Credit: Unknown
Atlanta writer Julie Auton met Suriani in one of Howard’s photography classes in the early 1980s — Suriani was one of many professional photographers Howard brought into the class. Auton stayed in touch with Howard and formed strong friendships with his circle of photographers and writers.
When Suriani was assembling the book that would become “Dancing Naked in the Material World,” she asked Auton to help her with the text. “So I guess you could say we bonded over strippers,” Auton says. “They later showed up at some of her exhibits.”
The book’s 1992 publication landed Suriani, with a few dancers, on the “Sally Jesse Raphael” TV show. Some of the images were displayed at the Deep South exhibition at the International Festival of Arles, France, alongside works by Eudora Welty, William Christenberry and Bruce Davidson.
During the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Suriani headed the photo department, whose members included Howard. The two took photos of “about 50 Atlantans,” he says. “All colors, sizes, religions, ages, single, in families and couples. They showed the photos on the Jumbotron during the opening ceremonies. It was a thrill.”
As the head of photography for Emory’s public relations department, Howard later hired Suriani, and they became fast friends. When Howard married, she was his “best Marilyn,” and when she married, he was her “man of honor.”
Suriani received an National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and was an artist in residence at the National School of Photography in Arles, France. Her photographs are in the High Museum’s permanent collection, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Atlanta, UPS headquarters, numerous high-end hotels around the world and in private collections. Her husband Bill Smith, whom she married in 2001, handled the business of her photographs.
“She had a keen interest in people,” says Julie Auton. “And she cared about what she photographed. When it came to getting a photograph, she wasn’t timid and she wasn’t easily intimidated.”
Credit: Thomas Deans Fine Art
Credit: Thomas Deans Fine Art
Her photographs appeared on the covers of numerous local, state and regional magazines and in exhibits and shows in Atlanta and elsewhere. Her installation titled Liquid Emerald at 3350 Peachtree Street features abstract images of Berkeley Lake, on which she and Bill lived, printed on plexiglass that’s 10 feet by 28 inches. Another large abstract installation, Waterway, covers 54 linear feet in a high-end condominium in Las Vegas.
“She would get the shot that no one else saw,” says Bill Smith.
Suriani was also a masterful cook who made wonderful Italian food that she shared with her many friends. Her husband says when they were dating, “It seemed that everyone we passed knew her. She had a very wide circle of friends.”
In addition to her husband, Suriani is survived by her sister Rosemarie Kidd and her daughters Lindsay Futterman and Chelsea Wood and her granddaughter Eston Ella Wood. A memorial service will be later this fall.
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