Exhibit bridges generations of alumni

Before she graduated, Emma Truscott ’24 (photographic and imaging arts) interviewed Toni Pepe ’08 MFA (photographic and imaging arts) about her career as a photography educator and artist. Their collaboration is documented in the RIT Archives Photo Alum Oral History collection, and an exhibit of Pepe’s work is on display in the corresponding Photo Alumni Gallery in Wallace Library.

Truscott gained more than interviewing and curating skills from the experience; she absorbed another photographer’s hard-earned insights. Pepe shared her perspective of stepping off the RIT graduation stage into the Great Recession and onto a personal path to a photography career. Today, Pepe is chair of photography and an assistant professor at Boston University and is working on her first photography book.

The RIT Archives Photo Alumni Gallery, supported by the College of Art and Design, launched in 2023.

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Toni Pepe

An exhibit of alumna Toni Pepe’s work is on display in Wallace Library.

“The project creates a conversation between a current student and an alum,” said Elizabeth Call, RIT university archivist. “It’s also a way to showcase the alum’s work and reconnect the alum with RIT. The RIT Archive fosters those connections.”

Truscott’s interview traces Pepe’s growth as an artist focusing on women in society, using herself as a model early in her career, and more recently working with archival media images about motherhood.

Truscott curated the exhibit “In Her Image” using selections from Pepe’s current work, “Mothercraft,” and from her master’s thesis, “Angle of Repose,” as well as other work. It includes props Pepe used in her photography, such as a vintage dress she wore.

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Provided

Emma Truscott ’24 curated the exhibit.

Truscott added historical context with a montage of newspaper clippings from Marcia Ellingson’s scrapbooks held in the RIT Archives. Marcia Ellingson was married to RIT’s fifth president, Mark Ellingson, who served from 1936 to 1969. Ellingson’s scrapbooks document women’s news from 1968 to 1975 and lend historical context to Pepe’s photography.

“I was thrilled to have the “Mothercraft” show come to RIT because it’s such a special place for me—it’s where I learned to be an artist,” Pepe said.

This is the second exhibit in the RIT Archives Photo Alumni Gallery. Truscott also curated the first one featuring Chris Nakis ’83 (photography).

Truscott’s experience working with Pepe and Nakis helped her land an internship at National Geographic in Washington, D.C., after graduation. Her interviews and curated shows were “big talking points” in her interview, she said.

“They were impressed with the amount and diversity of work I had done,” Truscott said. “I think the RIT Archives prepared me for different ways of thinking and different ways of being creative.”

To learn more, contact RIT University Archivist Elizabeth Call at ritarchive@rit.edu to suggest photo alumni for future exhibitions.