Shaw Has Seen the Big Picture at Emerson for Five Decades

After 52 years of teaching at Emerson College, Visual and Media Arts Professor Lauren Shaw is retiring.

She began her Emerson career at 22, after earning an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design.

“My relationship with my students has always been tantamount to my life,” said Shaw.

Shaw has created and taught numerous classes, including a Foundation of Photography course for years. She’s also taught Darkroom Photography, Documentary Photography, and a Photo Practicum for BFA students. She created the Digital Photography class. For many years, she was the only full-time professor teaching photography (today, VMA Assistant Professor Camilo Ramirez is also full-time). 

As photography evolved, Shaw evolved with it. Once a digital photography skeptic, Shaw said she grew to embrace it.

At Home in the Darkroom and Studio

Her first love, however, will always be film photography.

“The darkroom is magical. It’s alchemy. It’s quiet, it’s meditative, it’s slow. And you learn so much. You’re by yourself, the water is running. You just have time, and it’s amazing to see that image come up,” said Shaw, who oversaw the installation of Emerson’s new darkroom, and has a darkroom at her home, too.  

While she has spent innumerable hours in the studio and darkroom with students, Shaw brought light to her professorship, never feeling like she was just teaching technique.

“I’m teaching the whole student and how they feel about their work,” said Shaw. “I really feel what I teach, it’s not separate of who I am in my own life and my work.”

Former students say Shaw was more than a mentor. She is direct, caring, and encouraged students to be observant and attentive to details. She implored students to find their voice.

Her camaraderie extends past the classroom, with students such as Maeghan Ross ’11. Their professor-student relationship evolved into something more meaningful through the years. After graduating from Emerson, Ross lived with Shaw in Cambodia while working on Shaw’s documentary film, Angkor’s Children. Ross now considers Shaw family.

“What I learned from Lauren transcends academic knowledge. She taught me to observe the world with curiosity and empathy, to find stories worth telling, and to pursue them with integrity,” said Ross.

Now a psychologist, Ross said lessons learned from Shaw surface daily in her work. “The way she taught me to truly see people, to notice subtle visual cues and emotional expressions, directly enhances my clinical practice…The visual literacy and observation skills I developed in her darkroom have become invaluable tools in my psychological, and continued photography, practice.” 

A selection of Lauren Shaw’s work:

Check out more of Lauren Shaw’s work.

Talia Smith ’22 said she appreciated that Shaw created a non-hierarchical classroom.

“She was so respectful of my position on things, eager to hear my input, and truly valued my opinions on her work despite my age and novice understanding of photography,” said Smith. “I felt incredibly safe around her and really enjoyed the community that her classroom environment encouraged.”

Maximilien Collins ’22 loved that Shaw taught students to treat photography as a craft, and approach every project with an open mind.

“I’ve never seen her make students feel small, and every time someone pitched an idea, she took it seriously, gave productive feedback, and encouraged them to pursue it,” said Collins.

One such recent student is Ilana Grollman ’25, whose Guardian Angels series was shortlisted for the 2025 Sony World Photography Awards Students Competition. Grollman said that the capstone project, in which she explored her grief for her late mother, wouldn’t exist without Shaw.

“She inspired and pushed me to do the [Guardian Angels] project. She suggested I explore [my feelings of grief],” said Grollman. “Because of her guidance and the students, I came out with something I’m really proud of.”

As an international student from China, Deyi Zeng ’24 was intimidated by a completely different education system from the one she knew. She had moments of self-doubt, but Shaw always assured Zeng that she was capable of achieving her goals.

Zeng vividly remembers looking at the works of previous students in class, and feeling both admiration and anxiety.

“I couldn’t help but wonder if I would be able to create something as meaningful when my turn came. Sensing my doubt, Lauren put a reassuring hand on my shoulder and said, ‘I know you have the ability to create something extraordinary. Trust yourself,’” said Deng. “She encouraged me to focus on my own work rather than comparing myself to others. ‘Your work will be at its most powerful when you concentrate on your own voice,’ she told me.”

In or out of the classroom and darkroom, Shaw wanted students to get out into the world, regularly taking them on field trips to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, where her work has been exhibited. Her work is in the collection of a number of prestigious museums, including the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Harvard’s Fogg Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine, the Library of Congress, and Museum de Art de Lima.

Check out a photo gallery of Lauren Shaw’s Traces of Impermanence show.

And while Shaw inspired her students, the feeling is mutual.

“[I admire] their willingness to explore issues like their own identity,” said Shaw. “It’s been a real journey to get to this point because of my relationship with my students. They always came first. And they still do.”

In retirement, Shaw said she wants to spend more time with her grandkids, and is also planning on visiting Japan. Her dream is to have a one-woman multimedia show of her own at a museum, which she admits will be a challenge.

Looking back at her 52 years at Emerson, Shaw wants people to remember her passion for Emerson, and know she appreciates the College.

“It’s very emotional. Everything I’ve done and who I am today has been from my time at Emerson,” said Shaw. “The gratitude I have for Emerson College is profound.”