CAROLINE SUZMAN is a photographic artist who lives in Johannesburg. She has a special interest in the relationship between portraiture and the built environment. Using documentary and conceptual approaches, she layers her work with literary and allegorical elements to reflect on social themes such as the individual battling social, political and historical forces.  An arresting tension between vulnerability and self - declaration in her subjects is a signature element of her work.

Suzman studied photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg and English Literature and Photography at Rhodes University, South Africa. She began working professionally in 1995. Her photographs have been featured in local and international publications including Polka,The Boston Globe, Elle Magazine, Marie Claire,The Guardian, Leadership (edited by David Goldblatt,) The Times (London), and Monocle. 

In 1997, partly influenced by the work of her great aunt an anti-apartheid activist and politician, Helen Suzman (OMSG, DBE), Suzman began documenting the changing South African political and physical landscape, exploring the subtexts of heritage and violence. Her first book, Heartlands is in production. The book is a culmination of 20 years of travel around South Africa exploring the often harrowing experience of land ownership and the  complexities of land restitution after Apartheid. 

  Selected publications 

TAXI-008 (David Krut, 2003), Moving in Time: Images of Life in a Democratic South Africa (KMM Review Publishing, 2004) and Women by Women: 50 years of Women’s Photography in South Africa (Wits University Press, 2006)

Selected exhibition
2023

Liewe Land (Group show with Richard "Specs" Nzimande, University of Johannesburg, 9- 12  August 2023) Curated by Dineke Ortin

I Declare I Am Here (Solo exhibition Turbine Art Fair, Hyde Park, Johannesburg, 27-30 July 2023) Curated by Professor Karel NelI Declare I Am Here (Solo exhibition Wits Art Museum, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 9 March - 13 May 2023)

2022
Heartlands, (Aardklop Arts Festival, Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria, October  2022) Curated by Dineke Ortin 
Selected works, (David Krut Projects,Parkwood, Johannesburg, 2022 - ongoing )Curated by Ame Bell
A New Wave (Graham Contemporary, Hyde Park, Johannesburg,2022)Curated by James Sey 
2019
On Main Road ( Constitution Hill, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2019)Curated by Rita Potenza 
2016
Group show (Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (KKNK),Oudtshoorn,Western Cape, 2016)Curated by Lucia Boer
2014
Umhlaba 1913-2013: Commemorating the 1913 Land Act ( Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, 2013 and Wits Art Museum, 2014) Curated by David Goldblatt
2007
Re - Vision (Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, 2007), curated by Mary Jane Darroll 
2004 
Crossing Over - portraits from Israel and Gaza (Studio 23, Maboneng, Johannesburg 2004) 
2002
Bonani Africa-South Africa's Democratic Transition ( Museum Africa, Johannesburg, 2002)
1999
Lines of Sight: Perspectives in South African Photography (Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, 1999).