BIO: Marla Puziss moved to Atlanta from Maryland in 1989 and is still getting to know the South. She lives in Hapeville with her husband and recently retired from the clinical laboratory at Grady Memorial Hospital, where she still works one day a week. She is a self-taught photographer, inspired by looking at great photography since childhood. Her work has appeared online in South x Southeast, Lenscratch, and in various local and statewide juried photography exhibits – including Slow Exposures, Decatur Fine Arts Exhibition, LaGrange Southeast Regional, Arts Clayton Gallery, The Bowen Center for the Arts, South x Southeast Gallery, Atlanta Photography Group, Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, Johns Creek Art Center, Georgia Governor’s Office, and in private collection and by the City of Decatur, GA.
https://www.marlapuzissphotos.
com IG: @mpuziss
artist statement
I use my camera to try to capture the essence of ordinary people, places, and things, to see them with fresh eyes and reveal them in a new way. I am drawn to the smaller towns, rural areas, and byways – the “blue lines” on the old maps – and to quirkiness and eccentricity.
I enjoy photographing people in their own environment – in the woods, in their home or workplace, on city streets, on the farm. These environmental portraits add another dimension to what the face and body can reveal about the inner life of the subject, and the way the subject relates to the world around them. Dancer at the Dia de los muertos was photographed at the festival in Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery in 2022. The celebration included folk music and dance performances. I tried to capture the joy and movement of this young dancer.
