Creative Arts Workshop Presents: INTERLUDES: A Deborah Tenney Retrospective
Creative Arts Workshop (CAW) is honored to present INTERLUDES: A Deborah Tenney Retrospective, a summer exhibition celebrating the artistry and vision of Deborah Tenney (1944–2020)—a lifelong photography enthusiast, beloved educator, and longtime CAW student. The exhibition runs from June 18 to July 31, 2025, in the Hilles Gallery, with an opening reception on Friday, June 20, from 5 to 7pm.
Tenney, a Hamden resident and Lecturer in Yale’s Department of English, was also a dedicated ESL instructor and writing tutor at Morse College and the Yale School of Management. But it was in the quiet, contemplative practice of photography that she found deep joy and meaning. Her camera was a constant companion—whether wandering the back streets of Paris, strolling along the Connecticut shoreline, or exploring the wooded trails of East Rock.
Drawn to side streets, shop windows, doorways, deserted pathways, and quiet lake shores, Tenney’s work reflects an attentive, poetic eye—one that captured not just what was seen, but what was felt.
Her passion for photography was sparked by a gift from her father: a 35mm camera, given to her in high school. She remained committed to the artform throughout her life, honing her craft at CAW and producing silver gelatin prints in the darkroom under the mentorship of instructors including Harold Shapiro, Marianne Bernstein, Joan Fitzsimmons, and Phyllis Crowley.
In her own words:
“Becoming a photographer changes the way one sees… I love the entire process: Finding what I want to photograph — waiting for the light to be perfect, deciding on the point of view; Developing the negatives — the suspense of finally opening the tank and seeing images; Printing the negative — agitating the print in the developer and watching an image appear like magic.”
— Deborah Tenney, 2014
This retrospective showcases that love of process, and the quiet moments she saw and preserved through her lens.
All works in the exhibition will be for sale, with proceeds benefiting Doctors Without Borders, a global organization whose mission Tenney supported with conviction.