About Us

The most frequent question gallery founder and Director, Susan Porter, has been asked since opening Addison Woolley Gallery is “what is the origin of the name, Addison Woolley?”. Addison is the middle name of her brother, Tom, also a photographer, who encouraged her to take photography seriously nearly 30 years ago. He gave her a Nikon EM and taught her about lenses, film speed, depth of field, lighting--igniting a passion for the art that grows deeper with each passing year. Her father was also named Addison and had his own love for photography. After marrying her husband, political science professor, James Campbell, Porter lived briefly in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she met and studied with her first photography teacher, Alban E. Woolley, Jr., who not only honed her skills and vision, but instilled in her a deep respect and love for the art of, teaching of, and the history of photography. And while the dream of someday operating an art gallery began 20 years ago when she worked in government and press relations (okay, she was a lobbyist) in Washington, D.C., the determination strengthened after Al Woolley died and Porter and others tried to keep The AEW College of Photography alive. That effort proved to be impossible and Porter eventually moved with her husband to Buffalo, NY. There she entered the Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies program at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, and had the great privilege of studying poetics and text/image collaboration with poets Robert Creeley, Charles Bernstein and others.

Now living on Peaks Island, Maine, Porter hopes to create an organization that utilizes all of the skills and knowledge she learned from her mentors and which honors them as well.