Advanced Photography Students Explore Photo Archives at the Museum of the City of New York

On Monday, January 12, the Advanced Photography Portfolio class, led by Upper School Visual Arts faculty Adina Scherer, visited the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY). The excursion offered students a close look at a sampling of the museum’s 400,000 prints and negatives. Set in one of the museum’s large classroom spaces, students met with curatorial staff to examine and learn more about its renowned collections of photographs, from contact sheets, aged negatives, and small- and large-format prints, followed by brief free time to view current exhibitions in the galleries. 

 This field trip grew from a partnership with the museum, sparked by Jennifer Marrus, a trustee of the museum. Andrew and Michael Marrus, sons of David Elias Marrus ’48, and their wives Jennifer and Lauren, generously funded the new Marrus Family Media Lab and Darkroom on our Dyker Heights campus. Their gift honors David’s lifelong love of photography and provides Poly students a beautiful, state-of-the-art digital photo lab and darkroom to inspire creativity for years to come.

MCNY’S Senior Curator of Prints and Photographs Offers a Closer Look at History

Senior Curator of Prints and Photographs Sean Corcoran led an oral history presentation to Poly students, faculty, and staff. The curator shared a historical and technical view of the images: how the reproducibility of photographs after the 1890s increased demand for images in newspapers; how photographers documented poverty and urban life and, in some cases, influenced calls for public services; how photojournalism emerged from those technological and social shifts; and how photographers supported themselves by working for wealthy clients, newspapers, and civic projects. 

During the presentation, students received pocket notebooks and pencils, taking notes on the curator’s walk-through of the decades through various collection materials. The group examined examples of portraiture, Harlem-era photography from the Jazz Age, and documentary city studies that illustrated changing neighborhoods and social conditions in NYC. Technical topics were highlighted as well—the look and scale of large-format contact prints, pre-flash lighting techniques such as magnesium illumination, and the contrast between early darkroom practices and later reproductions.

Sarai Dudley ’26 noted how the visit revealed the collaborative and deliberate work behind photographs and exhibitions. “Today we saw all the work that goes into an exhibit, not just taking a picture but the many people behind a production. We got to see how photographers used to plan everything: scouting locations, choosing the time of day, composing in-camera, instead of casually walking up and snapping a shot. Seeing that progression gave me a wider, deeper appreciation for photography.”

The visit wove directly into the Advanced Photography course’s studies. Seeing original negatives and contact sheets reinforced students’ technical photography skills and in-class lessons about film exposure, composition, and the sequencing of images for a photo essay. Large-format and contact prints illustrated archival processes students will emulate in the new darkroom when it fully opens later this year. The curator’s discussion of how photographs functioned as social evidence and mass-reproducible documents deepened students’ understanding of the various journeys of photographers in NYC and their place in the changing landscape of the city’s socioeconomic and civil rights history. The museum visit therefore served both as a historical survey and as a practical bridge between classroom instruction, darkroom practice, and the final portfolio each student will produce.

The discussion expanded to other influential figures including Diane Arbus, Benedict Fernandez’s documentation of the civil rights movement and the public response to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Danny Lyon’s activist photography, and Garry Winogrand’s street work. Across these examples, curators emphasized technical choices, such as flattening space, framing, and scale, and how those choices shape meaning.

From Image-Making to Image Care: Photography Collection Preservation

The visit concluded with a final shift in focus from image-making to image care. Students were introduced to the role of a collections manager and learned about the scope of MCNY’s holdings of approximately 750,000 objects, including more than 400,000 photographs, and the logistics of preserving such a collection. Curators explained how photographs are organized, documented, and monitored over time, and how conservators collaborate with collections staff when damage is identified. Part of the discussion highlighted the various professional opportunities available to student artists, underscoring the many industries one may contribute to beyond simply working behind a camera lens. Students asked detailed questions about documenting wear and repair, which led into a hands-on activity: working with duplicate photographs from the Words Brothers collection, students created mock condition reports, using light at different angles to identify and record signs of damage.

“Seeing the conservation work and the old contact prints today made me appreciate the photographs so much more,” said Abigail Mangerson ’26. “At Poly, we scan film and can change things on a computer, but those photographers had to plan, scout, and get it right in-camera. Even the small prints show how much thought went into them; learning a photographer’s background makes even an ordinary picture feel meaningful.”

Throughout the visit, photography students connected historic practices to their own work with large-format and born-digital prints, and to their recently completed large-scale collage photo essays that combine multiple images and explore layered narratives of reality and construction. By engaging directly with original materials and the systems that support them, students gained a fuller understanding of photography as both a creative practice and a disciplined craft—one that moves from necessity to expression, from camera to print, and ultimately into the archive.