Photographs by students of Charles Arnold

Charles Arnold, Jr. was born in 1922 in Providence, Rhode Island. He earned a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1949; he subsequently worked at RISD for the next 5 years where he introduced the first course in photography at the school. From there he joined the Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, and worked with Minor White and Beaumont Newhall. Once a week Arnold held an evening seminar at the Eastman. Neil Croom and Ralph Hattersley attended the seminar and recommended that Arnold speak to C.B. Neblette (then dean of the RIT College of Graphic Arts and Photography) about teaching at RIT.

Arnold joined the faculty in the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences at RIT in the fall of 1959. Along with Neil Croom, Ralph Hattersley, and Minor White, he wrote the program for the department’s Bachelor of Fine Art degree in photography, and served as the first chairman, a position he held for seven years. Professionally, Arnold was known for his work in Xerography. He began experimenting with the technique in 1960, first with a Haloid processor, an early photocopier. According to Arnold, "the advantage of the Haloid processor…was the machine's flexibility in producing many different kinds of images. Most notably, the Haloid processor could copy three-dimensional objects electrostatically with considerable accuracy."¹

Arnold retired from RIT in 1987. That same year, he was honored with the Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching. Additionally, in honor of his contributions to photography, art, and communication, RIT established the Charles Arnold Lecture Series, a series of lectures by distinguished contemporary imagemakers and imagethinkers. Arnold died October 17, 2011 at age 89.

_{1 “Pioneer: The Image Speaks to the Viewer,” by Robert Morgan. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, December 15, 1985}