Degrees: MA, 1979, The New Schl for Social Rsrch; BA, 1964, Long Island Univ, CW Post Cam

Bio:

Professor Jaffe was born and raised in New York.  

She studied literature and psychology before becoming a photographer, eventually receiving her master’s degree in Media Studies (photography, video, film, media). Throughout the years she has worked as both a fine-art photographer and a commercial photographer.  

Her photographs are in the collections of museums and corporations around the world including the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum in New York, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Philadelphia Museum, Musee de L’Elysee in Switzerland, Bibliotec Nationale in Paris, and corporations such as IBM and Polaroid.

She was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and has also received grants from Polaroid and Kodak. 

Her series, in which she prints photographs that look like negatives, called Dark Sun, deals with metaphysical ideas and refers to historical processes in photography. For the past twenty years she has created most of her work in the studio with her 4”x5” view camera and film which she then scans, Photoshops and prints.

Professor Jaffe came to Hofstra in 1995 after teaching experience at Sarah Lawrence, N.Y.U., Columbia University and I.C.P. As head of the photography program she has made great changes in both the program and facilities. A new photography darkroom suite with computers/printers and professional studio was built in 2007 and the program is a very active one with many majors. She believes that it is important to know the historical as well as contemporary processes and believes in moving easily between film and digital.