Mariah Postlewait

of Photography and Special Projects

After an extensive national search, the DAI has hired Mariah Postlewait. She most recently served as the Director of the Learning Commons at the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and is completing her dissertation in art history at Binghamton University, New York. We asked some questions to get to know her:

Why did you choose photography as your area of focus?

Growing up, I was surrounded by old family photographs. Boxes and binders of old photographs were commonly spread around the kitchen table and used as visual and memory aids for telling stories. It was in recognizing the role that photography has in shaping one’s identity and collective family memory that I was hooked.

Do you have a favorite photographer or movement?

The answer to this question varies over time but an absolute favorite of mine are the early black and white series by Olivia Parker, Signs of Life (1975–1977) and Weighing the Planets (1978–1986). These images play with light and shadow, two- and three-dimensionality, and texture and surface in wonderful ways. There are often references to art history (and various other disciplines), as Parker arranged the natural and the manmade in her strange assemblages.

How do you plan to make your mark at the DAI?

I hope to spread my love and enthusiasm for photography to others in the community. I plan to include work that folks are unused to seeing: alternative process work, work by traditionally underrepresented communities and work that may push the boundaries of what we consider to be photography.