Marilyn Suriani created captivating photographs for over 40 years. Her career produced stunning documentaries, world-class portraits, and highly coveted fine art. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of museums, corporations, private individuals, and in high-profile public spaces worldwide.

Suriani was awarded numerous grants to produce her many documentary studies, including the poignant and inspirational Storefront Churches project featuring small urban congregations in Atlanta. Some of these images are in the permanent collection of the High Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art Atlanta. Her Women in Prison documentary focuses on the women and their lives inside. A thirty-year study of South Philadelphia is the subject of Suriani's roots. Self Portrait documents Marilyn's life after the age of sixty, examining gender, aging, identity, and grace.

Dancing Naked in the Material World, Suriani’s in-depth study of exotic dancers, received unanimous praise from critics, the Philadelphia Inquirer calling it “fine urban anthropology.” The book and a New York City gallery exhibit resulted in numerous radio and print interviews and reviews, and a TV show dedicated to her book on Sally Jesse Raphael. Images from this work were displayed in the Deep South exhibition at the International Festival of Arles, France, curated by Gilles Mora, with the work of such notables as Eudora Welty, William Christenberry, Debbie Fleming Caffery, and Bruce Davidson.

Throughout Suriani's career, Marilyn created large permanent installations. Examples of these include a permanent installation for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Southern Trinities, depicting life in the south using four large mixed-media triptychs in Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Gate E-17. Fast forward to 2014, and one of the largest original photographs on glass in Atlanta, Liquid Emerald, a water image at 10'x28' on glass in the lobby of Capital City Plaza on Peachtree Rd in Buckhead. In 2016, another large installation was commissioned in Las Vegas in a newly renovated luxury condominium high-rise, Waterway, using three large water photos mounted on acrylic, equalling 54 linear feet in the lobby corridor.

Suriani was chosen as an artist-in-residence at the L'Ecole Nationale de la Photographie in Arles, France, and was honored by the governor of Georgia for her 'significant contributions to the visual arts'. She was Senior Photographer for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games for three years. Her work continues to be highlighted in national and international magazines and museums.