University photographer J. Adam Fenster shares his favorite images that he made this year. Plus, a look back at 2024 in video.
For J. Adam Fenster, the key to making compelling photos is checking around the edges or fringes of an assignment, finding where the action isn’t necessarily supposed to be taking place. And he would know—Fenster has been the University of Rochester’s lead photographer for more than 15 years, capturing moments ranging from the intricate to the iconic.
As 2024 comes to a close, we talked with Fenster about his favorite images of the year—taking a look at what happened over, around, and through the University and beyond.
Enter stage left
McKenna Young ’26, Grace Van Der Meer ’25, and Nora Rooney ’25 of UR Celtic prepare for their performance at a welcome concert for attendees of the 2024 American College Dance Association Northeast Conference, hosted by the Program of Dance and Movement, in Feldman Ballroom.
“I was a photojournalist for years,” says Fenster, “and the general wisdom was to arrive early and stay late. And sometimes the photo isn’t always in the most obvious spot. This was the warm-up area, away from where the performances were happening. As soon as I walked in, I saw this composition. There’s great symmetry and natural light, and I like how they’re connected to one another by their hands. And three is always a cool number to have in an image. I think this photo is more interesting than any of the action photos I made that day.”
Waiting to exhale
Each year on Match Day, thousands of medical students across the country find out where they’ll be spending the next four years for their residency. Here, students at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, await the countdown to the reveal at noon.
Fenster says you’ll often hear photographers talk about layers. “This is layered front-to-back and side-to-side. I think I put the camera over my head to get this photo, and that angle allows the viewer to see more of those layers. I had never made an interesting photo of the ‘before’ of Match Day, as it’s usually about the joy and excitement that comes a few moments after this photo. So it was nice to capture the anticipation for a change.”
Another dimension, another dimension
A student tests out a virtual reality (VR) headset in Mary Ann Mavrinac Studio X, located within Carlson Library.
“I spent the morning at Studio X and I made hundreds of photos that day,” recalls Fenster. “This was a staged shoot; they kept bringing in students to populate the space. This photo is total eye candy. It’s colorful, it’s punchy, and you’ve got the thirds thing going on, compositionally, with the vertical color blocks in the window.”
Sky’s the limit
In April, Rochester was in the path of totality for an all-too-rare total solar eclipse. Despite the overcast sky, the day yielded memorable images, with a University community ready to celebrate.
In Fenster’s words, he couldn’t have gotten this photo without a lot of help. “There was so much build-up to the eclipse—so many expectations. I had five cameras working that day. And then the clouds rolled in.”
What might be mistaken as a drone shot was actually taken from the roof of the University’s Brooks Crossing Apartments. “I kept thinking ‘I’m not going to get a good photo today.’ At the last minute, I called the Department of Public Safety and asked to get up to the roof at Brooks Crossing. There, I set up a tripod and programmed the camera’s intervalometer (a feature used for remote shutter release) to make a series of images every few seconds for the duration of the eclipse while I was back on campus capturing the scene on the quad.”
In concert
An Eastman School of Music ensemble performs for inmates in the rehabilitation unit at the Monroe County Jail. This is believed to be the first time live music has been performed within the jail walls—and it’s also the first time the Eastman School has brought musicians there.
“This was one of the most moving experiences I’ve had working on an assignment for this institution,” says Fenster. “The juxtaposition between the musicians, the inmates, and the guards was striking for me, and there was something incongruous about hearing such beautiful music in such an unlikely place.
“For photographers, access is everything, and sometimes you need to ask for a little more than what event organizers are initially willing to provide. Before the concert, I asked the head guard if I could climb a staircase to get this elevated angle, which makes the image possible from a compositional standpoint and shows the important context.”
Lighter than air
As part of Senior Week, members of the Class of 2024 enjoy a picnic on Wilson Quad.
“Any time you have backlit bubbles, it’s worth going after,” says Fenster. “It’s got a nice springtime feel to it.”
Point of pride
Xavier Green gets a hug from his father, Bobby, during Rochester’s 174th Commencement ceremony in May. The event marks the conferral of academic degrees for all undergraduate and graduate students.
For Fenster, “This is the essence of Commencement. As photographers, we’re always looking for emotion. Hundreds of these moments happen throughout the day, but they’re so brief you’re not always able to catch them. This was during the processional before anything was happening on the stage. It’s another example of finding the fringes of the action. I also had enough time to run and get their names.”
Taking flight
Myzomela cardinalis, known locally as kikito, is pictured in flight near Kirakira, the provincial capital of the Makira-Ulawa Province in the Solomon Islands. Rochester Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology J. Albert Uy explores the ecology and genomics of hybridization in this species, using a combination of genetic and genomic approaches with field observations and experiments.
“How much time have you got?” laughed Fenster, when asked how he made this photo, taken during a research trip to the Solomon Islands in June. “I asked myself, ‘What’s the photo here? It’s got to be a bird in flight.’”
Things you should know: It took Fenster two days to travel from Rochester to the Solomon Islands, five flights each way, and several vaccinations. He photographed the birds—which are very small, about the size of hummingbirds—for only about two out of seven days of active photography. His flight home was delayed, allowing him a few extra hours on the day of his departure to go out one final time with Uy, who set up a decoy and a speaker playing myzomela calls, to make this shot, which landed on the cover of the fall 2024 issue of Rochester Review, distributed to approximately 150,000 alumni, friends, and supporters of the institution globally.
“I think it works to tell a story. I made over ten thousand photos during this trip. If I had to pick one, this is probably it. It was an incredible opportunity, an incredible trip. It’s great that the Office of Marketing and Communications sees the value in making these kinds of images, in documenting the research being done by Rochester researchers around the world.”
Letter best
The CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival, of which the University is a sponsor, celebrated its 21st season in June. The event featured numerous musicians from the Eastman School of Music community—current students, faculty, staff, and alumni—as well as students and faculty from the Eastman Community Music School, and concert spaces at the Eastman.
“This was late in the day and I was waiting for something to happen,” shares Fenster, who had made numerous photos already of performers onstage. “The light became more horizontal, and the colors were getting more and more saturated. And then I noticed this little girl playing among the giant letters just off Gibbs Street, near Eastman. It was along the edges of the event, among crowds of people.”
All that and a bag of (sensor) chips
Led by Benjamin Miller, a Dean’s Professor of Dermatology with joint appointments in biomedical engineering, biochemistry and biophysics, optics, and materials science, Rochester researchers are developing microchips with brain and lung tissue to study viral neuroinflammation.
The takeaway here, according to Fenster, is, “Experiment if you have time.” He says, “I was working on finding a groove using different camera angles and different light angles. This is the only photo in the gallery that I lit myself. The wafers are semi-opaque and have a weird iridescence that only occurs when lit from a particular angle.”
Blue-light special
First-year graduate student Alina Neveroska uses blue light and a special dye to check for corneal abnormalities in the eyes of post-doctoral student and test subject Krish Prahalad after an experiment session in the lab of Michele Rucci, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences.
“The research itself involves contact lenses in someone’s eye, which are attached to a tiny copper cable,” says Fenster. “This was actually at the end of the shoot, and this photo has nothing to do with the experiment they were conducting. They’re checking to make sure those crazy contact lenses didn’t scuff up his cornea. So, I’m wrapping up, putting gear away, and I saw that. It’s not why I was there, but to me, it was cooler than anything else I photographed while I was in the lab.”
A fresh coat
The School of Medicine and Dentistry’s Class of 2028 received their white coats at the annual Dr. Robert L. & Lillian H. Brent White Coat Ceremony in August. Above, Austin Hansen gets a kiss from his wife, Eliza, as he holds their 14-month-old daughter Maggie after the ceremony.
“This is another nice family moment that took place away from the action, on the fringes of the event,” says Fenster. “There’s a sense of release after this ceremony when the students can finally be with their families to celebrate. This photo is sort of a bookend with the one from Match Day. You don’t see a lot of families regularly at institutions like this. And if you can weave that into whatever story you’re illustrating, that’s a nice thing to do. It’s a reminder that behind all these people there are often families supporting them.”
Top-down supervision
Move-in day (or week) is a rite of passage for most Rochester students. With help from her mom, Sharon Xu (top bunk), Koko Connor, a piano major from San Francisco, gets settled into her room in the Eastman School of Music’s Student Living Center.
“This is a transitional time for students and parents, and this was a situation I hadn’t seen before—with the mom directing from the top of the bunk beds,” notes Fenster. “It’s bittersweet. They’re setting up the room, but they’re also delaying the inevitable separation, the goodbye.”
A night to remember
In August, students in the Class of 2028 attended the annual Candlelight Ceremony on the Eastman Quadrangle on the University’s River Campus.
“The Candlelight Ceremony used to be a much more subdued event; this year it was so different. Credit to John Blackshear, vice president for student life, who got everyone fired up by DJing this event. There was an energy throughout the crowd,” says Fenster. “I’d forgotten about the confetti cannons but fortunately was able to capture that moment, which really conveys the vibe of the evening. There’s a unity here, a class spirit.”
The path to knowledge
Fall in Rochester offers up a wealth of beauty—even indoors. Above, the evening sunlight shines through a doorway from Messinger Periodical Room into the Great Hall of Rush Rhees Library.
“Around mid- to late-October, I start looking around campus for photo opportunities. The leaves are changing, the sun is getting lower. I don’t know what brought me into Rush Rhees Library that day,” says Fenster, “but the light was changing quickly. The Great Hall is not that dark. This was all about exposing the subject—that beam of light—to create a dynamic photo. I like how the light coming through the periodical room door offers up a destination for the subject.”
Four-hundred-plus foot view
Located 40 miles south of Rochester in the Bristol Hills, the University’s C.E. Kenneth Mees Observatory is devoted to research, teaching, and public instruction. The observatory houses a 61cm Boller and Chivens Cassegrain reflector, dedicated on May 8, 1965.
In the Finger Lakes for another shoot that day, Fenster found himself driving around the area, making pictures. “I knew we had the observatory because years ago I made photos from there at night. I worked with one of the caretakers at the time. This trip, I launched the drone to make this photo. Shortly after I sent it up, a guy rolled up in his truck and was like, ‘What are you doing, man? Do you have permission to be here?’ So I introduced myself, and it turns out it was the same caretaker (shoutout to Kurt Holmes from Facilities!) from when I was there last, almost 15 years ago. So he went from being not very pleased to see me to being very helpful and kind. This photo is a great way to show how close the University is to one of the most beautiful areas in the world. And it’s made entirely possible by the drone, which is a great tool to have in our arsenal.”
Democracy in action
Gar and Cindy Lowenguth place “I Voted” stickers on the grave of women’s suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony on Election Day at Mount Hope Cemetery.
“The last time I was here was Election Day in 2016,” notes Fenster. “A similar thing was happening—there was media there, people waiting to put their stickers on the headstone. There were huge lines in 2016. That wasn’t the case this year. I hung out there for a while, and then this happened. And I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It was a really cool moment.”
