David R. Hanlon Headlines STLCC’s Peterson Photography Lecture Series

August 31, 2026

Posted by School of Communication, Design and Creative Arts in News Resources 

St. Louis Community College is pleased to announce the 13th Annual Peterson Photography Lecture Series, featuring a keynote presentation and concurrent solo exhibition by longtime faculty member David Hanlon. The exhibition, “Borrowed Time: Photographs by David R. Hanlon, 1990-2026” will be on display at the Meramec Contemporary Art Gallery from August 27 through September 22.

Event Details

Peterson Photography Lecture Series
Wednesday, Sept. 16
STLCC-Meramec
11333 Big Bend Road, Kirkwood, MO 63122

• Gallery Reception: 5-6:45 p.m. | Humanities East HE133
• Peterson Lecture: 7 p.m. | Lecture Hall LH103

RSVP: alumni@stlcc.edu

Through works selected from four portfolios created by Hanlon during 36 years of teaching photography at STLCC, “Borrowed Time” considers the nuanced character of environments that reflect our lives and memories, as well as the historical remnants that mark our period on this planet. Often using extended exposures, these photographs explore the representation of time as it passes across multiple generations.

Time has been a recurring theme for Hanlon since he began making pictures in 1979. “I work in a time-based medium,” he says. “The notion of how time works in your memory and how it works in your experiences — and how it can be actually retained or saved — has always been an interesting concept for me.”

Using film and extended exposures of up to 30 seconds, Hanlon’s photographs capture the “quietness of spaces” and the “evidence of the past in the present lives of people.” The exhibition brings together prints from four distinct series: interior spaces, forest landscapes, global culture, and sites connected to historical Mississippian and Late Woodland cultures. 

The Peterson Photography Lecture Series was founded by professional corporate and editorial photographer Kristen Peterson, who has studied under Hanlon. “He’s a phenomenal teacher,” Peterson says, noting the care he takes in helping students create a cohesive portfolio.

“I’ve been a student at STLCC-Meramec for many years and find it to be a wonderful place to learn,” she continues. “In honor of this experience, I initiated the annual Peterson Photography Lecture Series in 2012 in hopes of elevating the artistic and academic discourse at this institution by funding talks and workshops conducted by invited renowned regional photographers to engage with college and local audiences.”

Drawing on his extensive experience as a gallery director, Hanlon’s lecture will focus on the often-unseen stages of exhibiting. “I thought it’d be interesting to talk about what kind of thoughts artists have when they decide to build an exhibit, especially when you have a lot of material.”

About the Artist

David R. Hanlon is a professor in the STLCC School of Communication, Design and Creative Arts. He joined STLCC in 1990 as an adjunct instructor at Florissant Valley before becoming a full-time faculty member at Meramec, where he has also served as art department chair and gallery director. As a teacher, he has encouraged thousands of students beginning or continuing their work in photography. During this time, he has also exhibited in galleries and institutions throughout the world and worked for more than a decade as the chief photographer at archaeological sites in the Middle East and the Balkans.

Hanlon has written numerous essays on early photography that have appeared in museum and gallery catalogs and in international journals. He is the author of “Illuminating Shadows: The Calotype in Nineteenth-Century America” (2013) and “While the Sun Shines: The Lives and Pioneering Photographs of Leavitt Hunt and Nathan Flint Baker” (2021). He received the Meramec Faculty Lecture Award in 2022 and was a National Stereoscopic Association Research Fellow at the Library of Congress in 2026.