When Faith Ninivaggi first picked up a disposable camera as a 9-year-old, she discovered a tool through which she could express and explore her inner voice. Later, as a photojournalist, it became a tool propelling her outward as she documented historic events.
Faith Ninivaggi, center, on assignment at the Santa Speedo Run in Boston
With a BFA in Photography from the Art Institute of Boston (now the Lesley College of Art and Design), Faith’s visual tenacity led to a career close to the heartbeat of the Boston community as a staff news photographer for the Boston Herald until Covid-19 led to her sudden layoff.
Without an editor to assign her projects for the first time in 19 years, Faith, now studying Photography and Integrated Media in our MFA program, began to review her own nearly two decades of personal and professional work while finding new subjects to document.
The pandemic provided an unexpected abundance of subject matter. A freelance project with ABC’s Boston affiliate WCVB 5 led to a documentary project photographing the city as well as the news crew’s experience working during the pandemic. She won a New England Emmy Award for a video created using her work.
Gen Z’s collective pandemic narrative
Richer still were the opportunities for photography at home. Isolated with her teenage kids, Faith saw the need to tell stories of the pandemic’s effect on their generation. She pitched a story to Reuters on teens dressing up to mark the coming-of-age ritual of prom, even though most schools had canceled the dances. Faith recollects how the teens took advantage of the moment.