Professor Emeritus Jerome Liebling has had a remarkable career as a photographer and filmmaker, and through his teaching at Hampshire shaped a generation of talented students who went on to change the direction of the American documentary. Thirty-one years after graduating from Hampshire, Ken Burns (71F) says, “I still feel his influence daily.” Arriving at Hampshire in 1969, the year before the college opened, Jerome Liebling founded a film and photography program that quickly developed a national reputation for excellence, innovation and artistic integrity. Alumni of the program have won Academy, Emmy, Peabody, Sundance and People’s Choice awards; Guggenheim, NEA and Fulbright fellowships; the National Press Photographers Association’s Picture of the Year; and the International Documentary Association’s Career Achievement and Emerging Documentary Filmmaker awards. “It’s not just coincidence that Hampshire has had so many Oscar nominations. Jerry Liebling really nurtured us and the film program in its early years. It was not just a classroom experience. Filmmaking became a way of life.” Karen Goodman (72F), filmmaker Liebling’s own work hangs in the collections of major museums and galleries around the world, as well as in private collections. His books include The People, Yes! (1995), Jerome Liebling Photographs (1988), The Photographs of Jerome Liebling, 1947-1977 (1978) and the award-winning The Dickinsons of Amherst (2001). Among major exhibitions that have included his work are “American Politicians” at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, “Flora Photographica” at the Serpentine Gallery in London and “Jerome Liebling: Photographs” at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Jerome Liebling retired from active teaching in 1990, but both his commitment to his own creative projects and his connections to Hampshire College remain strong.
“It’s not just coincidence that Hampshire has had so many Oscar nominations. Jerry Liebling really nurtured us and the film program in its early years. It was not just a classroom experience. Filmmaking became a way of life.” Karen Goodman (72F), filmmaker
Hampshire encourages my son to keep walking to his own drummer and to do whatever it is he wants to, but to do it well. At Hampshire, you have 1,300 students who march to their own drummer