Author, photographer and filmmaker, Susan Lloyd (MFA, University of Oregon, 1979), works in areas of folk life, ethnography, Religious Studies, and Anthropology. Her photographic work and 25-year study of Holy Week and Easter time folk rituals in Hispanidad is currently under acquisition by the American Folk Life Center at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 

 

She was originally supported by National Geographic Magazine to photograph Holy Week in the Philippines and later expanded the project to Sicily, Spain, New Mexico, Guatemala, and Mexico/Arizona (including rites of the Yaqui and Tarahumara). Her work is the first to expansively document Holy Week/Semana Santa in Hispanidad, covering so many countries and locales. This project consists of award-winning photographs and text based on her first-hand experiences on-site and for which she is now seeking a publisher in book form.

 

Lloyd has also produced documentary films, including the award-winning The Last Zapatista, about the folk hero, Emiliano Zapata, and the zapatista movement in Mexico. Other documentaries include, Processione: A Sicilian Easter, about Holy Week in Sicily, a documentary about a Buddhist pilgrimage on Shikoku Island, Japan, and a documentary about Italian American immigration.

 

Her project about Holy Week rituals in Hispanidad, including photographs, film, and text, has been funded by grants including the Oregon Council for the Humanities, the Oregon Arts Commission, and the Center for the Study of Women in Society (University of Oregon). Film awards include Blue Ribbons, Bronze Aples and Best of Festival at venues including the American Film Festival, UCLA Vitas Festival, National Educational Film Festival, Cine Latino Festival, and the Pesaro International Film Festival (Italy), among others.

 

Articles and photographs on her projects have appeared internationally in periodicals. She lectures at universities and cultural organizations in the U.S., Mexico, and Italy. Her current, on-going project is a documentation of the Roma pilgrimage to Saint Sara Kali in France, and rites to the Hindu Kali in India.