Geneseo Photography Collection

Professor Michael Teres has been teaching at SUNY Geneseo since 1966. He is a professor of studio art, photography, graphic design, and has also taught several other classes through Geneseo’s (now defunct) Art Department. For the past 49 years, Professor Teres has been collecting his student’s photography. It started off as simply a means to provide examples of outstanding photography to future students, but Professor Teres soon realized he had created an expansive archive of student’s work. He has accumulated a collection of over 2,000 photographs, each one documenting a unique perspective from the eyes of individual students over nearly five decades. His goal has become that of sharing this characteristic part of the SUNY Geneseo history with the local community and the rest of the public eye. Professor Teres has recently received a grant to pursue this goal of archiving the collection of photography, and we have been working together to contact the alumni whose photography is a part of the collection. We have also been experimenting with graphic designs to create a logo, or potential company brand, to distinguish this particular collection. Plans for a website are in the making to document the photos as well, to provide a fast and easy way to maneuver through the array of photographs. With the loss of the Art Department at SUNY Geneseo, it means a great deal now—in fact more than ever—to archive these photographs and allow them to be seen, heard, and felt again