UCDA Creative Summit

Mark Cornelison spent 30 years as a photojournalist—24 of which were at the Lexington Herald-Leader—before jumping into higher education. As a photojournalist, he has photographed nine Super Bowls, 15 Final Fours, and 24 Kentucky Derbys. Mark began his career in the early 90s when film photography was still the standard. Every now and then during his time at the Herald-Leader he would use an old Crown Graphic from the 1950s and he also shot a lot of Polaroid 55 film. I loved that camera would use it awhile, then put it away and forget about it again for a few years. Later in his career, Mark started freelancing for the University of Kentucky on his days off and evenings, which eventually turned into a job offer. At age 50, he quit his job of 24 years and had his first baby. (“Wasn’t stressful at all!,” he says) One constant in Mark’s career has been taking one step forward and a couple steps backward—photographically. He was lucky to always have the most recent digital cameras in the industry, but now his main loves are a 1950s Speed Graphic and a 1902 Century #2 studio camera. Mark has also recently taken yet another step back—learning the 1850s Civil War-era Wet Plate Collodion process.

Mark DiOrio is an editorial and commercial photographer based in Upstate New York. He is also the University Photographer at Colgate University.

DiOrio earned his Master of Science in Photography from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the State University of New York College at Purchase.

He worked as a photojournalist at midsize newspapers, documenting communities in Louisiana, Utah, Florida, and New York. “Some of the best stories to be told can be found right in your backyard. You don’t have to travel the globe to find people with something important to reveal, or photograph for that matter.”

While on assignment, DiOrio often spends more time listening to those in front of the camera than making pictures with the intent on building trust and finding the story within the story. “The trust you build leads to access. Access is everything. It’s the point where you make the most intimate photographs. It’s where you capture someone at their most authentic representation. Without access, you have nothing.”

When his brow isn’t smudging up a viewfinder, you can catch DiOrio out for a hike, having a sip of bourbon by a bonfire, squeezing in another mile on his road bike, hunting for vintage things, daydreaming about another trip to the Colorado Plateau, and with a camera in hand taking photos for leisure, but probably not in that order.

Noah Scalin is the creator of the Webby Award-winning project Skull-A-Day and the collaborative science fiction universe and performance art project League of Space Pirates. He was the Grand Prize winner of Artfields 2022 and his collaboration with Old Navy was one of the most viewed commercials of 2020. Noah was the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business and his fine art has been exhibited internationally, including installations in Times Square, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. Noah is the author of six books, a sought after public speaker on creativity, and was a co-host of the Emmy-nominated VPM PBS program The Art Scene. He is also the founder of Another Limited Rebellion, an art and innovation consulting firm.

Reina Takahashi is a commercial paper artist based in Oakland, California. Her paper creations are made by hand and photographed for use in publications, social media, and ad campaigns. Since starting her commercial practice, Reina has provided artwork for The New York Times, Wired, The Los Angeles Times, and Target. She has a background as a product designer in finance, a visual designer in innovation consulting, and a founding member of the Design Museum of Chicago. When left to her own devices, she will almost always make paper food.

Mark Addison Smith is a queer artist whose design specialization is typographic storytelling: allowing illustrative text to convey a visual narrative through printed matter, artist books, and site installations. With his on-going, text-based archive, You Look Like The Right Type, he has been drawing snippets of overheard conversations every day since 2008 and assembling the works into larger conversations between strangers who haven't officially met or exchanged words. You Look Like The Right Type has been featured in Deadline, Goodtype, Hyperallergic, PRINT Magazine’s The Daily Heller, Queerty, and MAGMA Brand Design’s Slanted Magazine, among others. His artist’s books and typographic specimens have been accessioned into permanent collections and special collections archives worldwide, including the Brooklyn Museum Artists’ Books Collection, Center for Book Arts in New York City, Getty Research Institute, Guggenheim Museum Library and Archives, Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection, Kinsey Institute, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, Library of Congress, MoMA Franklin Furnace, the Smithsonian American Art and National Portrait Gallery Artists’ Book Collection, Tate Library, and Watson Library at The Met. He currently lives in New York City and serves as Associate Professor and Program Director of Design within the Art Department at The City College of New York (CUNY).