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Elizabeth Watt, a former Syracuse University student, professor and mentor, died in January 2023. Maria Ferrari, her best friend of 40 years, organized an exhibit of Watt’s work in the same place where the pair became friends — S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

In total, there are 32 bright, colorful still life photos of food, flowers and vases adorning the walls of Newhouse’s food.com. Accompanied by a brief description of Watt’s legacy, the exhibit, which was put up in mid-January, is a monument to her work and life.

“I would like as many people to see it as possible and be inspired,” Ferrari said. “Hold your best friends tight. You just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Ferrari met Watt during their undergraduate years at SU and became fast friends. After they graduated in 1981, she convinced Watt to move to New York City with her, where Watt quickly became notable in the photography field.

During her career as a food, still life and beauty photographer, Watt worked for magazines including Martha Stewart Living, Fortune and The New York Times Magazine.

She was part of a pioneering group of women who moved to New York City around the same time and shook up the male-dominated illustration photography industry, her former Newhouse professor Tony Golden said. With peers like Beth Galton and Nora Scarlet, Watt emphasized storytelling, setting and narrative in her work — unlike the technical photographers of the time.

“The whole field changed because of Elizabeth and these other women, what they brought to the front,” Golden said. “It was picked up very quickly, and that’s why she was such a quick success.”

When Watt and Ferrari were students, the photography program at SU was still fully reliant on photo labs and prints rather than digital photography. Students spent free time in the photo lab looking at each other’s photography and socializing, which created a tight-knit community.

Courtesy of Maria Ferrari

One of Elizabeth Watt’s artworks of three poppies depicts her bright and bold style. Former Syracuse University professor’s artworks are now in food.com.
Courtesy of Maria Ferrari

While they were studying at Syracuse, still life photography was more relevant than it is now, Ferrari said. In recent years, photographers have focused more on capturing people, but Watt focused on “seeing the simple beauty in the smallest of things.”

“I’m hoping (the exhibit is) going to really inspire other students to look at it and start thinking and seeing differently. That was her goal in life: to help other kids,” Ferrari said. “She was a mom too. She was a daughter, and she’s always been about bringing out the best in people.”

Ferrari said it was an honor to do the exhibit at SU. With Watt’s history at the school as a photography student and adjunct professor, it felt like the right place for her work to be displayed.

Watt returned to SU as an adjunct professor and taught a senior and graduate-level photo illustration class during the spring semester for many years. She continued to live in New York City while teaching the course, flying to Syracuse to teach her class before flying back home that same day.

When Newhouse held trips to the city for students, Watt hosted welcome receptions for them in her studio for no cost, Golden said.

“She became a mentor for our students in New York City,” Golden said. “She was this enormously successful bridge between Newhouse photo illustration majors, graduate students and undergrads in New York City, which was the mecca for advertising photography.”

Ken Harper, an associate professor in Newhouse and the exhibit curator, described the exhibit as not only a testament to Watt’s work, but a testament to her friendship with Ferrari.

“People come through Newhouse by the thousands, and sometimes it’s easy to forget the relationships that are forged there can last a lifetime,” Harper said. “And, we often forget that a lifetime is not forever.”

Harper said the exhibit is profoundly graphic. With bold, bright images of things that humans consume, he sees the exhibit as a reminder of nature’s ability to give humans life.

“There’s a lot of parallels you could draw towards the food that we choose and the friends that we choose to have,” Harper said. “These are the things that sustain us that we choose.”

The exhibit is a reminder there is beauty in the world that needs to be cherished, Harper said. He hopes the exhibit gives passersby a moment of pause, making them grateful for the important people in their lives.

“Elizabeth, for us, became a very powerful teacher. Students learn from her in the classroom and all the students that she mentored in New York,” Golden said. “It’s interesting now that she’s passed a year ago, that she’s teaching again with her images on that wall.”

Published on January 24, 2024 at 10:42 pm