University of St. Francis
1999 - Present
In 1999 I began teaching at the University of St. Francis, a small Catholic university in Joliet, Illinois, roughly 40 miles southwest of Chicago. The position was initially a one-year appointment. In my 3rd semester I introduced a documentary photography course. Here, during a view camera demonstration I began photographing the university’s community. At outset, I did not intend a technical exercise to develop into a sustained project. To date, I have made over 800 portraits. Through this effort, now in its third decade, I see how these images define a pivotal time in one’s life and how this document traces various societal shifts and transformation through the portraits of the rotating administrators, faculty, staff, and students.