Judith Taylor

"My current interests look back to the archaic processes of the 19th century and to the intense curiosity that signifies the passion of the early inventors. Though considered through the lens of our century, I work with hand-applied emulsions, the camera-less photogram, printing-out paper, gold toner and paper negatives. I like the physical, hands-on aspects of these processes as well as their relationship to drawing. I look for space, or place, that can become camera for photogenic drawings, on paper that prints out or develops-out as it is exposed.

Both my subject and my process are tied to the concepts of immediacy, chance, time, measurement, history, memory, and fiction."
-Judith Taylor

Judith Taylor was a photographer and celebrated Arcadia University professor known for her use of Printing-Out Paper (P.O.P.), a unique photographic paper that requires ultraviolet light to form a complete range of tones, so it is typically used to make positive prints outside with the photogram technique or large-scale negatives in direct sunlight. In the last decade of her career, Taylor merged photography with architecture as she began making contact prints of windows in her Mitchell Street studio and later when she moved to the then-new Crane Arts Building in Philadelphia in 2004. Taylor was known to exhibit the photogenic drawing negatives with their positives. In the Mitchell Street series, the wood frames reconfigure the positive as a believable with a dreamy vision of real space.

Education & Training
M.F.A. in Photography, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, 1978
B.A. in Fine Art with an emphasis on photography and film, the Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, 1975

Connection to Bucks County
Taylor was the program coordinator of Photography in Arcadia’s Department of Art and Design and during that time lived for many years in Bucks County. She also held positions at a variety of Delaware Valley Schools, including Bucks County Community College.

Major Solo Exhibitions
My Glass House, Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, Artists Installations, Philadelphia, PA, 2009
Insideout, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE, 2002
Histories, List Gallery, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, 2000

Teaching and Professional Appointments
Professor, Head of Photography, Department of Arts & Design, Arcadia University (formerly Beaver College), Glenside, PA
Appointment to Frank and Evelyn Steinbrucker Endowed Chair, Arcadia University, Glenside, PA, 2008

Selected Grants and Awards
Artist Residency, Hospitalfield, Arbroath, Scotland Individual Creative Artist Special Opportunity Stipend, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, 2003
Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts, Independence Foundation, Philadelphia, PA, 2002
Individual Creative Artist Special Opportunity Stipend, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, 2001
Ellington Beavers Award for Intellectual Inquiry, Beaver College Research Foundation, Glenside, PA, 1998
Leeway Grant for Excellence in Photography, Leeway Foundation Grants in the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 1996
Visual Arts Fellowship, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, 1990
Nominee, Awards in the Visual Arts National Artists Award, 1988