Susanne Junker is an artist with focus on photography

Her work concentrates on identity research

Susanne, born 1973 in Germany, lives and works in Paris, France. Practicing observation of herself since early childhood, Susanne has used her own body as a canvas for interpretation of social themes, feminist and female behaviour and turned around her meiotic exposure to firstly break the preconception of her then current job as a fashion model in the 1990s and her own struggle with what she describes as "24/7 demanded perfection".

Since then, she embraced themes of gender identification, the objectivisation of women and the use of sexuality in media via photography, video, drawing and performance. On social media, she refuses to be categorised as a #femaleartist and proclaims: “I am not an artist! I am Susanne Junker, artist!”. This slogan and her created hashtag #femaleartisthashtagsucks emphasises that Junker’s work is based on her identity and not her gender and underlines the responsibility of working as an artist today.

Susanne Junker with her self-doll, Ningbo, China, 2011.

Susanne Junker at her exhibition “Re-Searching Identity” at Laufer Art gallery during Belgrade Photo Month, March 2019, Belgrade, Serbia.

Susanne Junker at the exhibition: “On starting another conversation about comparative feminism”, WhyWhyArt, 2017, Nanjing, China.

Susanne Junker installing work in public space, 2021, Paris, France

Susanne Junker during her artist talk at the Goethe Institute, 2018, Shanghai, China.

Susanne Junker at the group exhibition “En corps elles”, Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, 2021, Lyon, France.

In 2018, Susanne Junker was selected by the Goethe-Institut Shanghai and the Shanghai Institute of Design of the China Academy of Art (CAA) as the finalist and resident artist of the annual “German Artists in Shanghai” residency program.

During her residency, she taught a workshop titled “Researching Identity”, to propose a new way of teaching through photography and artistic exercise that empowered young students while they discovered their identity and individuality.

In 2021 and 2022 Susanne Junker returned as a virtual tutor to the China Academy of Art (CAA) in Hangzhou, China, teaching her ART-ME-ART workshop for the universities international “playshop” program.

Besides her own work as an artist, Susanne Junker founded and directed stage候台BACK, her artist run space for international cultural art exchange programs and experimental exhibitions, firstly in the legendary 696 artist warehouse and later at Shanghai’s art district M50, from 2008 – 2013 in Shanghai, China.

Susanne Junker’s work and research is widely exposed and takes part of exhibitions and photo festivals worldwide.