About Addison Woolley

The most frequent question gallery owner, Susan Porter, has been asked since opening Addison Woolley Gallery and Center for Photographic Inquiry 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 believes Portland is the place, and 2008 is the time to create an organization that utilizes all of the skills and knowledge she learned from her mentors and which honors them as well. After working for three years on a documentary of Maxwell’s Farm in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, with an exhibit of some of the work from that project at the Art Gallery at University of New England in Portland during the fall of 2007, she decided to explore the feasibility of her dream. She had been researching, talking with advisors and developing a business plan during the previous year, with Alfred Steiglitz’s 291 Gallery, so influential at the birth of Modernism in the early years of the 20th century, as her muse. She brainstormed with colleagues, most intensely with Fran Vita-Taylor, photographer and teacher, with whom she taught a children’s workshop during the winter of 2008 under the auspices of Portland’s, The Telling Room. After casually looking at possible locations, 87 Market Street, with large sunny windows facing Post Office Park, became available. A sweet, warm and welcoming space, it was clear that there was no question it was to be the home of Addison Woolley. Opening in March of 2008, Porter now looks forward to exhibiting established as well as emerging photographers; expanding the roster of special, “Thursdays at Addison Woolley” events; bringing in speakers, poets, writers, musicians; building the research library and launching a series of children’s workshops and lecture programs.