Tony Mendoza

I studied engineering in college. Worked for a year. Hated it. Studied architecture in grad school. worked for 4 years. Liked it, but didn't like going to an office every day, and figured I wasn't gong to be a great architect anyway. Turned to photography. Loved it. I've been doing it ever since (1973) and have done some writing, some video, some books, some teaching. Actually, a lot of teaching. Then I retired (2013). I'm currently an emeritus professor in the art department at Ohio State. Attempting to become an active art photographer again. Here is my short professional blurb: Tony Mendoza was trained as an engineer (Yale University) and as an architect (Harvard Graduate School of Design) before he turned full time to photography. He is the author of Cuba: Going Back, an account of his first trip back to his native land after 36 years of exile, Stories, a photography book which combines photographs with short autobiographical stories, and Ernie: A Photographer's Memoir, a book about his relationship with Ernie, a cat, Flowers, a book about flowers shot from an unusual perspective and A Cuban Summer, a coming of age novel. His photographs have been exhibited extensively, and are included in the collections of many museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He has received three National Endowment for the Arts Photography Fellowships, A Guggenheim Photography Fellowship. He is also the recipient of five Ohio Arts Council Fellowships in photography, creative writing, and video.