Reframing the Lens: Amy Finkel Reimagining Photography at Marist and Beyond
JD, Maine from the upcoming series "Getaway." Photo via Amy Finkel
Assistant Professor of Photography Amy Finkel arrived at Marist University last year with a plethora of knowledge, expertise, accolades and a fresh take on the photography minor offered to students.
A Beacon resident with previous positions at New York University and Parsons School of Design, Finkel accepted a tenure-track position at Marist and was encouraged to revamp the photography minor.
“The darkroom had been closed, and they hadn’t taken the darkroom classes off the curriculum,” she said. “Students haven’t been able to go into it for four-ish years.”
Without a darkroom, students in the special topics course ART 194, which was previously a replacement for basic photography (a darkroom class), had to send their film out to be processed. Finkel instead made Digital Photography the introductory course, amongst many other changes.
What Marist lacks in a darkroom, however, it makes up for in innovative and inspired professors.
“The second course is a film photography course,” Finkel explained. “I kind of had to get creative, and I am proud and excited about this, because there is no darkroom. I'm taking everyone back to the 1800s. I built this UV exposure unit because I want them to do their printing. We’re going back to before there were darkrooms at all, and we’re using the sun to do cyanotypes, or in our case, this UV exposure unit.”
Finkel spoke to a certain nostalgia that comes with shooting on film, remarking on the uniqueness of the many cameras she’s collected over the years.
“It’s a really lovely thing to be able to look through something that someone else used to shoot their family in 1937.”
The body of work she’s currently producing, however, is a documentary photography project titled “Getaway,” which narratively depicts the systemic healthcare disparities women face and honors their resilience.
Finkel uncovered alarming details about sex and gender bias in medicine through her vast research. She analyzed texts from the National Institutes of Health, examined photographs and medical journals, and reviewed federal funding history and clinical trials.
Most profound and impactful, however, was the work she did with her set of subjects who lived through medical mistreatment and many of whom she found on Reddit. She recalled driving over 60 hours this past summer to meet and photograph them.
Each portrait was deeply influenced by the individual’s story. Finkel tasked her participants with imagining how their experiences made them feel.
“I traveled to Maine to capture [subject’s] story,” Finkel said. “She had really horrible experiences with doctors in the Marines. She asked me to read this vampire novel because she kept seeing herself as this female vampire who would stalk towns. She said, ‘I want to be a Victorian witch, like haunting men.’ I used a bunch of fancy, fun technology that I had with me… It’s a really haunting image.”
Finkel remains captivated by the portrait lens for the intimacy it requires. As both an artist and human, she has always been drawn towards other humans, a quality that is on full display in “Getaway” and her consistent efforts to ensure her students succeed.
“I like people. I just find them endlessly fascinating,” she said. “And everyone always has endlessly fascinating stories to tell. Why wouldn’t I capture it?”