Written by Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center curators Mary-Kay Lombino and Jess Brier, Making a Life in Photography: Rollie McKenna is the first career survey of prolific American photographer Rosalie (Rollie) Thorne McKenna (1918–2003). After graduating from Vassar in 1940, she went on to have an iconic career, eventually making portraits of artists and writers including W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Alexander Calder, Truman Capote, T. S. Eliot, Laura Gilpin, Henry Moore, Sylvia Plath, Ezra Pound, Anne Sexton, Dylan Thomas, and Eudora Welty. The book's publication accompanies the upcoming exhibition Making a Life in Photography, on view February 17–June 2, 2024.  

McKenna’s story as a queer woman would be lost if not for her dedication to preserving her own legacy. She embraced photography to explore the complexities of human experience — including her own. Join us to learn more about this mid-twentieth century trailblazer's life and work from the curators and authors of this first-ever monograph, and then sign up for a guided tour of the exhibition on Saturday, April 6th. 

About the Authors: 

Jessica D. Brier, Curator of Photography at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, is a specialist in American and European modernism, photography history, and design history.

Mary-Kay Lombino, Deputy Director and Emily Hargroves Fisher ’57 and Richard B. Fisher Curator, has overseen the modern and contemporary art and photography collections, exhibitions, and publications at the Loeb Art Center for over fifteen years.

This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by Arts Mid-Hudson.