Susan Young Photo

Cohort One

2026-09-10T15:13:50.428-04:00

I could not be more excited to present my latest film project, Cohort One. My friend Danielle and I found a common interest in the Tufts University Prison Initiative of Tisch College (TUPIT) and spent almost a year making this 50-minute documentary about the program's amazing founder, Hilary Binda, and three of its stellar participants, David Delvalle, Nathan Miksch, and Kentel Weaver. Along the way we fell in love with the program, its mission, its participants and alumni, and everyone we met who is involved with the TUPIT and its adjacent reentry program, MyTERN. And now we are trying to get the film out there so that the rest of the world can see the value of this powerful initiative. Our first major public screening will be at the Inthrive Film Festival will be in Richmond, Virginia, on Oct. 2. The fact that I grew up in Richmond is a strange coincidence and one that makes me very happy. It feels good to go back to my roots and introduce folks to Hilary, David, Nathan, and Kentel. Please join us if you can at First Baptist Church, 2709 Monument Avenue, on Friday, October 2. Our film will screen around 7 and there will be a discussion afterward.

Camp 2026

2026-09-10T12:29:26.967-04:00

There is nothing like a weekend at Carol and Nejem's New Hampshire camp to get one's head on right. Sleeping in the "fish bowl," meals on the porch, farmstand food, swimming in the lake, a serious hike, a break from technology and politics and sirens. But the thing that makes it truly exceptional is the company -- a dog, two cats, a pair of loons, and, of course: our host and hostess.

Friends and Family: NH

2026-09-01T13:17:22.351-04:00

We spent a delightful weekend in New Hampshire with our friends Geoff and Erika and Geoff's parents, Garnet and Martha. The four of them have a nice set up that includes a balance of spending time together and doing their own things. We managed to follow the model they set -- hanging out by the pool with our generation, sitting at the dinning room table with Garnet, spending time in the living room with Martha, and taking a long walk in the neighborhood on our own. We also did some antiquing, went to our favorite coffee spot -- Union Coffee in Milford -- and had a delicious and authentic farm to table meal at the Hiltop Cafe. We fit a lot into a short weekend and came home refreshed, nourished by Erika's backyard veggies that were featured prominently in our meals and buoyed by the conversations and connections.

My Mom at 95

2026-08-31T17:16:28.470-04:00

Earlier this month, my mom turned 95. It feels like a miracle that anyone could be on the planet that many years. My mom has seen and done a lot in her 9.5 decades -- from playing baseball as a kid, to riding her bike across the United States in her early 60s, to hiking the Appalachian Trail. She has spent much of her life advocating for civil rights -- in Boston and New York as a college student, in Philadelphia as a young mother, and in Richmond since moving there in 1970. She is frugal, strong, and anything but fussy. She is very proud of her three children and her one grandson. She likes chocolate and ice cream and to sit in the sun. She reads the paper paper every day (except for Monday because the Richmond Times Dispatch is no longer printed on Monday). At this stage she's managing pretty well with the current (crazy) state of the world, the challenges of technology, and the obstacles that old age (and esp. hearing loss) bring to daily living. The day before her birthday we all traipsed down to the old train station in Richmond's Shockoe bottom area to experience Expanding Freedom. It is a powerful and important exhibition and our guide, Deborah, was full of insight, knowledge, inspiration, and appreciation. The next day, with help from my brother, my mom shared a slideshow of her 1993 cross country bike trip, telling stories to an audience of about 40 friends, family members, and residents of her senior living facility. It was a brave undertaking and she managed to give a sense of her various adventures and her own unique take on them. It is a delight to see her in her element with 95 years of her true personality shining through.

Chitarra Pastaria

2026-08-16T00:59:36.798-04:00

Over the summer I started filming at Chitarra Pastaria in Cambridge. On weekday mornings you'll find Chitarra folks working out of Central Square's Little Donkey restaurant, making, packaging, and fulfilling orders for pasta. Or they might be brainstorming about ways to market their product or selling it at local farmers markets. The for-profit endeavor employs people on the autism spectrum, giving these young adults a place where they can do meaningful work, earn a paycheck, and be their authentic selves. The company meets my criteria for a documentary project -- good people doing something good that I think the world should know about. The fact that they are located in my neighborhood and the people involved are nice, interesting, and passionate about their product and their mission is a bonus, not to mention that they are teaching me a lot. And, a side benefit: their pasta is delicious.

Hello Ames

2026-08-01T22:25:00.821-04:00

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a brand new human. Ames was born on July 19, and on his tenth day, I got to take photos of him (and his mom and dad). He was surprisingly alert, looking around and taking in his surroundings, occasionally (accidentally?) moving his face into something resembling a smile, and doing his best to help his parents understand what he needed. They were very good at putting the pieces of the puzzle together, offering up milk, moving him around in various positions on their arms and bodies, rocking him while sitting and standing, checking his diaper, etc.. All efforts to help him adjust to life outside the womb, which we agreed must be a tremendous shock after spending 9+ months in there. The little guy is very lovable, and he's bringing a lot of joy to those around him, including me. I am already looking forward to our next rendezvous.

Cape Tradition

2026-07-30T15:08:55.548-04:00

One of the huge advantages of a summer birthday is spending it on Cape Cod. And for the last four years, Jimmy and I have gone to the Liberty Hill Inn on or around 7/27 to mark another year on the planet. John and Kris continue to amaze and amuse and we have the perfect routine of eating, exercising, and exploring. This year I was particularly taken (obsessed, one might say) with the flowers on our morning walk and Jimmy was particularly taken (ditto) with the birds. Something for everyone. And then some.

Subi Cako

2026-07-21T23:11:36.185-04:00

For years I've been wanting to make a film about the tailor who runs the dry cleaner in my neighborhood. Subi Cako hails from Albania, he is kind and generous, he is a photographer and a singer. He knows his way around a sewing machine and has helped me and Jimmy with our outfits on the rare occasions when we need to be fancy, not to mention we rip a favorite sleeve or need to shorten a hem. He is also good at thwarting my advances. A few weeks back I had a deadline for a class assignment so I went in with my camera and tripod. Telling me the shop was too messy and he wasn't prepared, he shook his head but I got a glimpse of a maybe in his eyes. I started to film the wall of thread and he started to clean up. A short while later I had enough material for my class assignment -- a 60-second montage. When Subi posted it on his Facebook page, the translation read: "Very long persistence for one minute video." But I'm pretty sure he was glad I persisted.

Goofy: Man's Best Friend

2026-07-04T10:51:09.526-04:00

For a class I'm taking this summer, I needed a subject to photograph. My neighbor Goofy, a 125-pound Great Dane/Great Pyrenees mix, volunteered. I checked with the humans he oversees and they were willing to let me tag along on a walk. Goofy and I have gotten to know each other over the years as he sits on the porch, plops down on the sidewalk, considers the car, usually while one of his humans patiently stands at the end of the leash, offering encouragement. He is clearly in charge of his destiny and the suggestions of others are not really his concern. Occasionally he will acquiesce and follow a recommendation, usually offering me a look that says, "I'm just taking pity on this poor guy. He really wants me to go up the steps." His first gig as a model went well and while he's willing to do it again, he said he's not sure modeling suits the lifestyle he's worked hard to create. I understand but think he might change his mind. We shall see.

I Am an Artist. I Am Brave.

2026-06-16T23:02:02.349-04:00

I am honored to have spent some time over the last year documenting the work of my inspired and inspiring artist neighbor Whitney. Working with art teacher Ellie Lawson and 5th graders at Fletcher Maynard Academy, a public school in Cambridge, Whitney lead the creation of a very cool mural that was installed last fall. Like so much of what Whitney does, the project brought people together to do something cool. It also adds a dose of delight to the corner of Broadway and Windsor. A side bonus to watching this 10-minute documentary -- you might fall in love with the artists featured.

Mother's Day

2026-05-14T23:08:29.104-04:00

Got to make a quick trip down to Richmond to spend Mother's Day with this one. She's 94 and managing to bounce back from most of the challenges of aging. Walking well with a walker, scooting around in a wheelchair, covering her legs with lotion before putting on (stylish!) compression socks (no small task), keeping track of her meds (I think/hope), coping with being about 90 percent deaf. Thank goodness she can still read and thank goodness the Richmond Times Dispatch still delivers the newspaper six days a week. (Mondays recently went online only, two words most of us over fifty don't want to hear/read.) She's got a lot of spirit and a lot to offer the world and that is something to celebrate at any age.

Nor Leans

2026-05-07T11:59:00.002-04:00

Hanging out in a graveyard is my idea of a good time. Doing so in New Orleans, it turns out, is even better. And with bestie Julia? What more could a girl ask for? The stars aligned last month when our Harvard video project took us to Baton Rouge and I finally got to sample the flavors of Louisiana. My first trip to that state. I'd heard tell of the place and it lived up to expectations. A good place to be alive and not a bad place to be dead.

Torres del Paine

2026-04-20T23:39:00.002-04:00

We saved the best for last on our 2.5 week tour through Patagonia. Explora was a five star camp nestled in Chili's Torres del Paine national park. Delicious food, fantastic excursions, nice people, an incredibly beautiful setting, knowledgable and inspiring guides (who make you feel good about the future), lovely Scandinavian architecture. I cannot say enough about how wonderful this place is. So I will let the pictures tell the story.

Australis

2026-04-17T13:24:00.001-04:00

My attempt to avoid ever stepping foot on anything like a cruise ship was thwarted by the compelling offers of adventuring through the southern most waters of the world. And it turns out the Australis is not your typical cruise. Yes, there was a lot of food (and yes, you had to decide what you wanted for lunch while you sat at the breakfast table) and drink, and yes, there was a Julie McCoy style cruise director, but she was directing us on serious hiking excursions, documentary film showings, and educational sessions about penguins. We spent four nights on the ship and did two challenging hiking expeditions, floated by a bunch of blue glaciers, visited Cape Horn National Park and met the family stationed there, and learned a ton from our excursion guides. These folks know their stuff and their thoughtful approach to the environment is equal parts educational and inspiring.

Ushuaia, Argentina

2026-04-11T23:59:00.004-04:00

After our first week or so in Chili, we spent two nights in the world's southern most city, Ushuaia, Argentina. The fact that we stayed at a fancy hilltop hotel was particularly appreciated on our first night after a long-ish day of travel, and even more so on night two when we returned from a full day of hiking and paddling in the rain. If it sounds like I'm complaining about the rain, I am not. It was a lovely day of exploring with a hot lunch in a yurt, a pair of influencers from Asia upon whom I put my cultural anthropology frameworks to use, and a very enthusiastic husband who was love love loving all the nature. Also, for the first time ever, we both had rain coats and rain pants that were actually waterproof. Whoop whoop.

La Leona

2026-04-03T16:17:00.002-04:00

One of the best things we did during our Patagonia trip was a kayak and hiking excursion. Paddling in double kayaks on La Leona river outside of El Calafate was a fantastic experience, made even better by the fear of the whitecaps, the temperature of the water (cold), and the serious current. We fought the elements and made it to Cerro Los Hornos, where we got out of the boats and hiked around, seeing petrified tree trunks and dinosaur bones on the way to the top of a crazy moonscape with a breathtaking view of the river. It literally took my breath away. Our guides were terrific -- providing hot tea and cookies at the top of the hike and beer after we'd paddled back to the the pick up spot. Also, a little fold out bench that we could sit on to change out of our wetsuits. Every detail thought through.

El Chalten

2026-03-29T22:10:00.001-04:00

One of our full-day trips during our time in El Calafate was spent heading to El Chalten, the trekking capital of Argentina. This lengthy journey was where we first saw guanacos, a lean and less fury llama that is in the camel family. These creatures dotted the mostly barren landscape for much of our journey. The ranches are gigantic with not a lot to see -- an occasional entrance with a building, and every once in a while we'd see a small collection of cows or horses. There is standard issue fencing for miles and miles -- wooden stakes with four rows of regular wire followed by a top layer of barbed wire. Apparently the guanacos are very agile and they can jump the fence, but, of course, every now and then they get tangled in the wire and cannot escape. The periodic skeletons in various stages of decay were haunting, esp. those with condors -- gigantic scavenger birds -- reminding us of the natural cycle of life as they ate their lunch. (Also there were waterfalls, kitty cats, helicopters, a lovely lunch, a solar charging station, beautiful views, a cool roadside stop with delicious fried dough, etc., it was just the dead animals made a lasting impression on me.)

Perito Moreno Glacier

2026-03-27T11:25:00.002-04:00

One of the reasons we went to Patagonia NOW was that we wanted to see glaciers. Worried they'd melt over the next decade, we started planning our trip about 8 months ago. Of course we'd seen pictures and videos of these giant snow mountains but seeing them in person was something entirely different. We spent our first full day in El Calafate at Glacier National Park getting up close and personal with the Perito Moreno Glacier. The blue-ness of the glaciers was a surprise to me. It has something to do with the ice being so compact that the longer wave lengths of light -- the ones that are red and yellow -- can't get through, leaving us with blue. The "calving," -- when giant chunks of the glacier break off -- was dramatic and beautiful and sad and a tiny bit scary. It was easy to imagine the whole glacier just collapsing and causing a tidal wave, but apparently that is not (yet?) likely. A compelling storyline for an apocalyptical plot for sure, but thankfully our experience was more nature documentary than horror movie.

El Calafate

2026-03-24T22:55:00.004-04:00

Our homebase in El Calafate for three nights was a hotel at the top of a hill just outside of town. The Alto was very finicky about their coffee service -- i.e. you couldn't bring coffee back to your room -- but they had two other features that offset that deficit: a giant swimming pool and horses. So while the grown up in me was having a hard time with the caffeine situation, the kid in me was fully content.

Valparaiso, Chile

2026-03-23T22:36:00.003-04:00

It was impossible to capture in photos, but the gigantic port in Valparaiso was filled with shipping containers that looked like lego pieces from the top of the steep hill that leads down to the water. Walking down that hill we found ourselves in an outdoor museum of street art -- including painted sides of buildings, staircases, cars, fences, streets, sidewalks, etc. Also, a whole mess of wires. Everywhere. And some cool re-purposing -- shipping container sides into housing, computer monitors into artwork, bikes into sculpture. It added up to a lovely afternoon tour that made it clear why this place is designated a World Heritage Site.

Casas del Bosque

2026-03-22T22:27:00.004-04:00

I'm not a wine person. Period. It just isn't my thing. (As my friend Dan Zevin said, "it taste like wine.") But I found taking a tour of a winery and learning how the stuff is made, sipping some of it (and swirling and sniffing and all that), esp. when paired with a nosh, to be fun. Casas del Bosque is in the Casablanca Valley, about an hour outside of Santiago. The vineyard was beautiful and the scale of machinery and the cellar -- full of wooden barrels and high ceilings -- was super cool. And, of course, I really enjoyed those breadsticks.

Santiago

2026-03-22T22:11:00.004-04:00

Our big amazing wonderful trip of a lifetime to Chile and Argentina with Jack and Cindy started with two nights in Santiago. We got our bearings with the help of a local guide who walked us around the city, acquainting us with the politics, history, architecture, and nature. We climbed up the Santa Lucia Hill in the heat -- a very different scene than the 2 feet of snow we'd left (miraculously) in Boston the day before. After resting up, we launched what became a Pisco Sour Tour that lasted the full 2.5 weeks of our journey. The Republica Independient del Pisco not only had the drink of choice, they also had the perfect meal and atmosphere to welcome us to the capital city.

Salt Lake

2026-02-18T23:41:00.006-05:00

A short and sweet jaunt to Salt Lake City last month was a wonderful little get-away that included visiting Kirstin and Sean and doing a little work. The work part inspired me to muster up the courage and seek out Temple Square where I found that I could just walk right in to the Tabernacle. All lit up in colorful lights that felt more Disney than church, THIS IS THE PLACE where the famous choir does their thing. I had assumed that I'd need to show some sort of Mormon credentials to get in, but that was not the case. And while there was no church in the non-work part, there was a ton of spirit. My hosts took me to a very lovely surprise birthday party where I met a bunch of their friends, a delicious restaurant (and Sean went back to the house to get my ID because I was not allowed in the place without -- this is the place where alcohol is extremely regulated), a daytrip north to go snow shoeing, a wacky sculpture garden, and a tour of the neighborhood. Given how lovable the whole Sean/Kirstin clan is, I was not surprised to fall in love with their dog, Russell, who is the oldest and sweetest and most loving of all the dogs.

Swiss Stopover

2026-01-25T13:34:00.007-05:00

As much as I wish my (college and hometown) friend Julie lived closer than Switzerland, I can't complain about the lovely visits we get when she comes to Boston on trips to see her family in Maine. And sometimes I also manage a glimpse of one or two of her daughters and, on a good year, her sister. Earlier this month, Julie and her older daughter, Liv, stopped in for a delightful 28 hours that included our usual activities: walking, talking, cooking, eating, hanging out. Short. But sweet.

Cape Escape, Winter Version

2026-01-01T19:25:00.002-05:00

Apparently, according to the blog, it had been more than a decade since we'd gone to the Chatham Bars Inn. So it was time to revisit this old favorite in the preferred less pricey season of Winter. Mother Nature cooperated by giving us about six inches of snow after we arrived, the Impudent Oyster provided possibly the best dinner of all times on New Year's Eve, we dawned our boots and tooled around in the snow, watched Mississippi Masala (and learned that our beloved director, Mira Nair, is today celebrating the inauguration of her son as Mayor of NYC!), took a nap, and had a completely prefect day. Setting the stage for 2026, we hope.