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Portrait of Ron Amato

Professor

Ron Amato

  • School of Art and Design
  • Photography Department

The Box

Focused on themes of isolation, desire, conflict and empowerment, Ron Amato’s photographic series and book, The Box, speaks to human experiences of self-discovery and community building. Using a series of boxes to create visual metaphors, Ron echoes his development from adolescence to adulthood through over 100 color, and black and white photographs. Evoking first his youth in Brooklyn, New York during the 1960s and 1970s, moving through his coming out as a gay man and to his present position as a respected professional photographer and teacher, Ron creates a vivid portrait of struggle and triumph.

Cover of The Box

How did you come up with the idea?
I had been wanting to use a box to represent adversity for a long time.

Does this publication relate to your work or teaching at FIT? If so, how?
Certainly the experience of making a large scale work like this, getting it published and marketing it is an experience I carry with me into the classroom. It is an experience few current photography faculty have.

What are you proudest of?
The crossover of the work from a niche audience to mainstream and winning the 2017 American Photographic Artists award for Outstanding Photography Series.

  • Time to publication: 2 years
  • Professor at FIT since 2005
  • Teaches photography classes on light & visual narrative