Students exhibit photography in honor of late professor
A photography exhibit dedicated to Susan Fenton, M.F.A, associate professor of art at St. Joe’s, who died on Nov. 23, will be on display from now through the end of June.
Seven students who were slated to take her advanced photography class before she fell ill last fall submitted their work to be featured in the exhibit on the second floor of Post Learning Commons.
The students were asked by Jeanne Bracy, gallery coordinator for the Merion Hall and Boland Hall galleries, to submit two photos along with a caption for each describing why it reminded them of Fenton.
Bracy said the photos are all very different but carry similar themes.
“The common theme was how [Fenton] inspired all of them to be their own person and their own artist,” Bracy said. “Kind of like, ‘I’ll give you the foundation and then you go out there and make it your own and be creative.’”
Following the memorial service held in Fenton’s honor on Feb. 5, Bracy invited Fenton’s family and friends to visit the exhibit to see firsthand the impact Fenton made on her students.
The students who submitted their photography and took classes with Fenton come from a variety of majors, including Bethany Zaccaria ’19, a pharmaceutical marketing major with an art minor. She took two of Fenton’s darkroom photography classes where she learned to think outside the box in her practice.
Zaccaria chose to exhibit a photo that she did not particularly like until Fenton pointed it out as one of her favorites during a critique.
“She very much liked the unique pictures and the ones that you didn’t like and maybe other people wouldn’t like,” Zaccaria said. “She inspired me to start looking at photography in an even more unique way.”
Aedan Accardi ’19 had a similar reason for choosing a photo of Independence Hall to exhibit in honor of Fenton. He said he nearly threw the negative away because the exposure was off and the photo was too dark, but Fenton saw its potential.
“Susan looked at them and saw that I could develop them somehow,” Accardi said. “She literally took me to the side and taught me how to use filters and how to get the picture to exist. I would’ve just thrown that negative away, and it became a picture that everyone really liked.”
Along with choosing photos Fenton herself enjoyed, students chose those that had the elements they learned from her classes. The second photo Accardi chose was of a seagull in front of the lower Manhattan skyline.
“That picture has depth of field, directional lines and the rule of thirds,” Accardi said. “It took the concepts she taught us and put it into one.”
Fenton’s legacy at St. Joe’s is in her talent and personality alike, according to Bracy.
“She was friendly with all of the students, but she found that fine line where you can be friends with your students while also keeping the discipline and the teaching going on,” Bracy said. “The students appreciated that.”
Julia Donahue ’19 took three classes with Fenton and was also her advisee. For Donahue, what made Fenton such an impactful professor was her constructive criticism.
“She was never afraid to tell me or my classmates if she wasn’t crazy about a certain piece of work,” Donahue said. “That helped because I think some teachers are a little scared to do that.”
According to Bracy, what the art department will miss most about Fenton is the energy and spirit she brought with her to Boland Hall.
“She was 69 years old and she would go to zumba classes like four times a week,” Bracy said. “She would come in here in her zumba pants ready to go, and she carried her class along like that.”
There will be an exhibition of Fenton’s artwork in Merion Hall in August.
