Penny Rakoff

Title: Professor Emeritus
Dept/Program: Photography
Office: Folk Hall128
Email: prakoff@uakron.edu

Biography

Penny Rakoff is a Professor of Art who taught one year at S.U.N.Y. Oswego, before coming to UA in 1978. She received her BFA from the University of Michigan, and her MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology. Ms. Rakoff has taught all levels of black and white and color photography, as well as alternative processes. She is known for her color photographs of Florida and NE Ohio taken with long exposures at night, which have been exhibited regionally, nationally, and internationally. In 1991, Rakoff created an installation for the Cleveland Museum of Art’s 75th Anniversary celebration called “The Fauve Landscape”, which steered her career in a new direction. Since then, she has created numerous permanent and temporary site-specific installations, community projects, and public pieces. These include a mosaic tile bench with photographic images transferred to tile at the Gateway sports complex, public art for the W. 3rd. St. RTA stop at the football stadium in Cleveland, and art for another RTA stop in Minneapolis.

In collaboration with landscape architects, she completed a three-year project to design a new pocket park with public art in downtown Cleveland. All these projects are mixed media, with the inclusion of photographic imagery. I enjoy the challenge of researching new materials, thinking of ways to incorporate photography into public spaces, and working with architects and engineers to create art that is conceptually related to its environment and its audience.

Education

M.F.A. Rochester Institute of Technology, B.F.A. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor