Sue Wrbican

Rhode Island School of Design

During a ten year involvement with a Pittsburgh publication known as the Mill Hunk Herald, Sue Wrbican’s work in photography and poetry grew out of personal experiences as an employee of a steel mill, a cable television company, a waitress and a woodworker.  As a staff photographer at the University of Pittsburgh from 1989-1994, she devoted much of her time to a documentary project called “A Portrait of Braeburn” interviewing and photographing residents regarding their memories of this small steel community on the Allegheny River.  Wrbican is currently finishing her MFA thesis at the Rhode Island School of Design.  The resulting piece is a video incorporating her deceased father’s extensive film and photography archive with her own poetry about their difficult relationship.  The shift from looking outside to looking inside was spurred by issues of representation that arose while doing documentary photography.