Longtime Photographer Returns to Randolph Community College to Teach
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After 29 years in the business‚ portrait and fine-art photographer Ashley Fetner has gone back to the one that brought him to the dance.
That would be Randolph Community College‚ where he received his training and where he now passes on his knowledge to budding photographers.
“They gave me a good foundation‚” he says. “They taught us to make technically excellent photographs‚ properly composed and well-presented.”
Before returning to Randolph County to teach‚ Fetner spent years as a commercially successful photographer.
Shortly after graduating from RCC‚ he got the opportunity to work in Milwaukee with B. Artin Haig‚ a former White House photographer. Fetner calls the experience “priceless.”
In 2002‚ after some moving around and further study‚ he got the call to come back to RCC to teach full time. Fetner also stays busy photographing portraits‚ weddings and just about anything that clients need or want.
Whatever the assignment‚ Fetner says he strives to produce images that are “well-thought through‚ very well-planned.”
As a visual artist‚ he finds inspiration many places‚ from the American West to the back roads of Randolph County.
“Some of it is halfway across the United States. Some of it is in my own back yard‚” he says.
See Fetner’s work on his Web site‚ ashleyfetnerportraits.com.
Story by Catherine Darnell
