Midwest Chapter ConferenceSpeakers

Deborah Orloff

Friday, October 10, 2025 @ 1:00pm, College for Creative Studies

Material Ways of Seeing: Using Special Collections and Archives for Inspiration

Deborah Orloff is a photo-based artist and educator. Originally from New York City, she moved to Ohio to accept a faculty position at the University of Toledo where she is the Head of Photography & Digital Media, and Associate Chair of the Department of Art. Orloff received her MFA from Syracuse University and her BFA from Clark University. Although her primary medium is photography, she has also worked in video and installation. Her artwork has been included in numerous exhibitions at national and international venues including: the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, The Museum of Fine Arts in Nizhny Tagil, Russia, and the Royal Scottish Academy Galleries in Edinburgh, Scotland. Orloff's ongoing series, Elusive Memory, was selected for inclusion in the Museum of Contemporary Photography's Midwest Photographers Project and the Rotterdam Photo Festival in the Netherlands. Deborah Orloff has been the recipient of dozens of grants and awards including corporate sponsorship by Hahnemühle Paper. Most recently, she was the recipient of a 2025 Photobook Fellowship at the University of Colorado Boulder and named a "Top 200" in Photolucida's 2025 Critical Mass.