Suellen Parker is an acclaimed Atlanta-based artist and photography professor at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) – Atlanta Campus.

She uses a combination of sculpture, photography, and digital image manipulation to craft a mound of clay into something familiar with human features and appearance. Days of planning, creating, arranging and rearranging are necessary to make a single final image. Watch as she creates one of her cover photographs for The New York Times Magazine in this video.

Suellen was one of my MFA professors at SCAD. As an instructor, she has the rare ability of expecting excellence while providing encouragement and understanding along the way. She taught me quite a bit – probably more than she thinks. One of the most important things I learned is to be gentle with my artist self, but settle for nothing less than his very best work.

Suellen has been showcased in Aperture’s publication, “reGeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow,” and in Aperture Gallery’s New York exhibition of the same name. Her work is in several private collections, including the Sir Elton John Collection.

Check out one of Atlanta’s great talents at SuellenParker.com (or click on her name at the beginning of this post)!