Suzanne Clifford Bloom—beloved wife, friend, artist, and teacher—who is remembered for her compassionate embrace of the interfaces between culture, language, photography, and the natural world, passed away on February 4, 2025, following a brief illness. Suzanne possessed a sparkling intellect, thoughtful mentoring ability, and passionate commitment to her artwork that still vividly sustain all who knew her.
Suzanne was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and then the University of Pennsylvania receiving her BFA in 1965 and MFA in 1968. Her academic appointments included Pennsylvania State University, 1969–70, and Smith College, 1970–76. While at Smith, Suzanne met Edward Hill and the two began a relationship, a marriage, and a fruitful and sustaining artmaking collaboration under the joint pseudonym MANUAL, which would last the next fifty years. They moved to Houston in 1976 to become art professors at the University of Houston. Many were inspired by Suzanne’s deep engagement with students, until her retirement from teaching in 2012.
MANUAL (Ed Hill / Suzanne Bloom) began their collaboration in 1974. Pioneers since the infancy of digital photography, their photographs, videos, multimedia projects, and installations have been exhibited widely, both internationally and throughout the United States. Their work is represented in many private and public collections including major museums in their hometown of Houston, and in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Denver, and at university museums across the country including in Arizona, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.
Their first major exhibition, Suzanne Bloom and Ed Hill (MANUAL): Research and Collaboration, took place at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 1980. FOREST\PRODUCTS, an extensive experimental multimedia installation, was mounted at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, in 1992. These groundbreaking exhibitions influenced a larger movement exploring the connections between ecology and art. A retrospective of their work, MANUAL: Two Worlds, The Collaboration of Ed Hill and Suzanne Bloom was organized by and exhibited in 2002 at the International Center of Photography in New York, and it was exhibited in an expanded form at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 2004.
The culmination of the MANUAL collaboration was their exhibition BEECH // BOOK at Moody Gallery, in conjunction with the 2024 FotoFest Biennial. BEECH // BOOK: An Emblematic Pairing drew on work from their 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship. The exhibition marked fifty years of the artists’ partnership and their nineteenth and final exhibition with the gallery.
Bloom and Hill are the recipients of numerous grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and four National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. MANUAL has been represented by Moody Gallery since 1983.
Suzanne and Ed split their time between Vershire, Vermont, during the summers, and Houston, during the fall and spring school terms. Thriving in a natural setting in Vermont, they built their home in a forest on the side of a mountain and near a pond. The mountains, trees, and creatures of nature, along with their carefully selected library became the inspirations and tools for their photography and videos. Suzanne cultivated an intense intellectual and empathetic relationship with the many plant species around their home, and her place in that ecosystem was born of respectful collaboration and pure delight. Meanwhile, Suzanne became an accomplished violinist. Music was her personal passion. The last image she sent to Moody Gallery was a proof of a photograph she had just finished: Genesis of A Music.
Suzanne is survived by her husband Ed Hill, her brother Edward Clifford III and his wife Carol, niece Lynne Card and her husband Philip, great niece Alexandra Lee, and great nephew Nickolas Card, Ed Hill’s sister Deborah Hill Russell, and the many friends who admired and loved her deeply. A celebration of her life will be held at Moody Gallery on a later date to be announced.
This blog post was adapted by Catherine Couturier Gallery from an orginal article by Moody Gallery.
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Suzanne Clifford Bloom—beloved wife, friend, artist, and teacher—who is remembered for her compassionate embrace of the interfaces between culture, language, photography, and the natural world, passed away on February 4, 2025, following a brief illness. Suzanne possessed a sparkling intellect, thoughtful mentoring ability, and passionate commitment to her artwork that still vividly sustain all who knew her.
Suzanne was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and then the University of Pennsylvania receiving her BFA in 1965 and MFA in 1968. Her academic appointments included Pennsylvania State University, 1969–70, and Smith College, 1970–76. While at Smith, Suzanne met Edward Hill and the two began a relationship, a marriage, and a fruitful and sustaining artmaking collaboration under the joint pseudonym MANUAL, which would last the next fifty years. They moved to Houston in 1976 to become art professors at the University of Houston. Many were inspired by Suzanne’s deep engagement with students, until her retirement from teaching in 2012.
MANUAL (Ed Hill / Suzanne Bloom) began their collaboration in 1974. Pioneers since the infancy of digital photography, their photographs, videos, multimedia projects, and installations have been exhibited widely, both internationally and throughout the United States. Their work is represented in many private and public collections including major museums in their hometown of Houston, and in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Denver, and at university museums across the country including in Arizona, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.
Their first major exhibition, Suzanne Bloom and Ed Hill (MANUAL): Research and Collaboration, took place at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 1980. FOREST\PRODUCTS, an extensive experimental multimedia installation, was mounted at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, in 1992. These groundbreaking exhibitions influenced a larger movement exploring the connections between ecology and art. A retrospective of their work, MANUAL: Two Worlds, The Collaboration of Ed Hill and Suzanne Bloom was organized by and exhibited in 2002 at the International Center of Photography in New York, and it was exhibited in an expanded form at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 2004.
The culmination of the MANUAL collaboration was their exhibition BEECH // BOOK at Moody Gallery, in conjunction with the 2024 FotoFest Biennial. BEECH // BOOK: An Emblematic Pairing drew on work from their 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship. The exhibition marked fifty years of the artists’ partnership and their nineteenth and final exhibition with the gallery.
Bloom and Hill are the recipients of numerous grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and four National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. MANUAL has been represented by Moody Gallery since 1983.
Suzanne and Ed split their time between Vershire, Vermont, during the summers, and Houston, during the fall and spring school terms. Thriving in a natural setting in Vermont, they built their home in a forest on the side of a mountain and near a pond. The mountains, trees, and creatures of nature, along with their carefully selected library became the inspirations and tools for their photography and videos. Suzanne cultivated an intense intellectual and empathetic relationship with the many plant species around their home, and her place in that ecosystem was born of respectful collaboration and pure delight. Meanwhile, Suzanne became an accomplished violinist. Music was her personal passion. The last image she sent to Moody Gallery was a proof of a photograph she had just finished: Genesis of A Music.
Suzanne is survived by her husband Ed Hill, her brother Edward Clifford III and his wife Carol, niece Lynne Card and her husband Philip, great niece Alexandra Lee, and great nephew Nickolas Card, Ed Hill’s sister Deborah Hill Russell, and the many friends who admired and loved her deeply. A celebration of her life will be held at Moody Gallery on a later date to be announced.
This blog post was adapted by Catherine Couturier Gallery from an orginal article by Moody Gallery.
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