She spent 37 years capturing our best angles

“I wonder if … ” The words are spoken in a tone as soft as her heart.

portrait of photographer Jo McCulty holding her camera — Jo McCulty ’84, ’94 MA

Jo McCulty ’84, ’94 MA has used that phrase often when considering how best to capture Ohio State with her camera. It speaks to the care she has taken as a university photographer for the past 37 years.

Jo always thinks of others — subjects and audiences — while focusing her lens with unwavering purpose and an artful eye.

“I’ve tried to show what being at Ohio State not only looks like,” she says, “but what it feels like.”

Consider this gallery of her photos and backstories a gift from Jo, who retired in February after a career in service to her alma mater. “It’s about them, not me,” she says of those who view her photographs. Yet this selection is uniquely Jo: full of warmth, connection, exuberance, determination and curiosity.

We all have been rewarded by Jo’s talent, but she proclaims herself the lucky one.

Having joined the Ohio State staff as a darkroom technician six months after earning her bachelor’s degree, she is grateful for the amazing people she encountered on daily adventures that led to unforgettable memories. “It has been a great honor,” she says.

Here is her story about Ohio State, as told through her photos and her own words. — Todd Jones

The world knows about our incredible athletics program. So, I generally focused my camera on the fans, band and spirit when working football games. This shot has been used often, but the giant flag and logo have long been retired.

There’s no containing our energy

My degree was in journalism. I wanted to change the world. However, I quickly realized that the people making the world better are right here at Ohio State, and I could promote their work with my photography skills. I started traveling around campus with my camera, and the more I got out there, the more I saw that this is a really phenomenal place. Ohio State is absolutely huge and dynamic. There’s so much going on all the time. Learning. Studying. Research. Internships. Activities. Mentoring. Clubs. Athletics. The list is gigantic. Even in things that are repetitive, there’s something new going on all the time. It’s hard to represent the broadness of it all. I think you see the passion best in subtle ways — an expression or a gesture. I tried to capture it by waiting and watching. I’d stay out of the way so people didn’t feel like they were being photographed. I wanted to show the joy and curiosity of people here and how they make Ohio State an exciting, vibrant place.

I happened to be out on the Oval photographing the last week of classes in 2011. Brutus showed up, and a bunch of students couldn’t contain their joy at the sight of our mascot. They went running toward Brutus and surrounded him like a big family. It must have been planned, but it made for a fun photo.

A 40-minute rainstorm that began shortly after the start of our spring 1997 commencement ceremony turned Ohio Stadium into a wading pool and led to the cancellation of graduation festivities for the first time in 56 years. These students frolicked in the water and made memories. They didn’t let their special day be ruined. I appreciated their attitude.

The Oval hums with energy during Welcome Week as a new semester begins. The excitement comes across in these students at the 2014 Involvement Fair. They’re playing with a Roochute, a parachute-like concept designed by Ron Holgado ’12 to “radiate positivity.” It was beautiful to watch new friendships forming under the colorful canopy — a great way to start a new year.

Our women’s basketball team was playing Purdue in 2009, and I turned around and saw these male students cheering on the Buckeyes. I was so pleased to see that. The stands weren’t packed, but these guys were really into the game. They were really rooting.

After convocation at St. John Arena, students were led down the ramp at Ohio Stadium through a tunnel of pride formed by members of the Buckeye community. The new students were welcomed with high-fives, saw themselves on the giant scoreboard video screen, and touched the football field turf.

I loved covering the African American Heritage Festivals. This one, on a beautiful day in 2009 at Browning Amphitheater, was especially memorable to me because of this student. He was really digging every band that came on stage. I just loved his energy and how happy he was to be celebrating.

The College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences often brings a dairy cow to the Oval for students to meet and milk. I love how the woman from the Buckeye Dairy Club is enjoying the student’s reaction to the cow. The moment seems to honor our land grant ancestry.

I enjoyed covering the School of Music’s annual Children’s Concert in Mershon Auditorium. Each year has more creative additions — choruses in the balcony with the lights out (heavenly!); eight people playing one bass; an unimaginable number of concert marimbas. This one included an element of dance. The event is always classy and joyful.

It’s hard to go wrong with a photo that includes a dog. This is from a 2012 Office of Service-Learning project, Puppy Play Day. The student at right stopped by the project at Royer Commons — an activity center on north campus that is no longer there — and took such joy in petting the dog. She seemed relieved to have a fun break.

Jo talks student traditions

Jo McCulty: Well, there’s so much energy on this campus, and it really starts at the beginning of the academic year with the Involvement Fair. That’s when all these clubs come out and try to recruit new students. There’s just so much activity and joy and people meet friends right away. They find something that could possibly turn into a lifelong interest.

This photo of the “roo shoot,” this big canopy that they were playing with, shows students just having so much fun. I just thought, “Oh, they’re meeting friends that they’re going to be friends with for life.” What a great way to start the academic year.

Then the next day, they’ll go to convocation. When it used to be at St. John, after the convocation, they would go through the stadium down the “Tunnel of Pride.” They’d be on camera. They’d see themselves on the Jumbotron. Faculty and students and staff would high five them down the way, and they’d get to touch the turf. It was just such a great way to welcome new Buckeyes.

The long walk that bisects the Oval is such a special place for so many people. I thought this photo taken on a pretty autumn afternoon in 2015 would resonate with all Buckeyes. The university seal speaks to our history, and the foot traffic adds a sense of timelessness.

We find room to reflect

So much of what I shoot is nonstop engagement. I felt it was important to also depict quieter, expansive campus scenes, whether indoors or out. Ohio State is big and boisterous, but you can find space to wind down and be in smaller groups or alone. There are ways to get away from all the noise and enjoy a little quieter, roomier spaces to be able to think great thoughts. We have a lot of natural beauty on our campus, and we have some interesting architecture, particularly in some of the newer indoor spaces. Ohio State has a lot of really old buildings, but we’re creating a lot of really innovative, modern interiors with renovations. Students can find inspiring spaces to sit back, reflect on what they’re doing here, think of those who came before and feel special in this moment in history. I wanted to find beautiful campus scenes that speak to that contemplativeness and to show things others might not see, or to show them in a way they might not normally be seen.

I am so proud of the fact that Ohio State University continually earns a Tree Campus USA designation from the Arbor Day Foundation. Each year since 2011, this recognition has affirmed the university’s sustainability goals and commitments. Our trees contribute much more than beauty. They limit stormwater runoff and absorb air pollution. They provide shade for people and buildings, helping to lower cooling costs, and they increase in value as the age.

Pomerene Hall, where I did my graduate work, has always been my favorite building. Its renovation in 2018 created a beautiful space to ponder philosophers’ ideas on three transparent balconies on the walls inside the eastern Grand Atrium. The glass, light and reflections move the photo into the present and future.

Few people were on campus on this July morning in 2010 when I noticed this leaf standing out with the sky as a backdrop. An iconic Ohio State image beckoned. I carefully tucked other fragile stems aside so the leaf could fully reveal itself. Mirror Lake adds to the heartfelt connection.

The Ohio Union has a nice, homey feel to it, especially here on the second floor of the west end. You always see students lounging or studying there in comfortable chairs by a fireplace. It feels like a living room. The sunshine coming through the beautiful stained-glassed window on this day in 2016 made this a special moment.

I always looked for newer, cooler spaces to suggest the forward-thinking, innovative collaborations that go on around campus. This gem of a spot, which I photographed in 2016, is Campbell Hall’s Innovative Classroom. Faculty use it to learn about applied active learning strategies they can implement in their classes.

I love how the Thompson Library embraces traditions of the past while looking toward the future. The Grand Reading Room is formal and impressive for serious, diligent study. But the West Atrium is expansive and open, with floating stairs and books visible behind futuristic glass walls. It’s as though you can see ideas drifting through the air.

A group of students allowed me to follow them around on a Moonlight Walking Tour during orientation. They checked out different sites around the Oval, such as the whispering wall near Wexner Center for the Arts. Here they visit Orton Hall, where they’re learning that stone on the building’s exterior aligns with Ohio’s stratigraphy, or rock layers below ground. It’s one of my favorite buildings on campus.

These students found a quiet space to study in the lobby of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry Building. With dusk approaching, the moving light of the unique art installation was reflected in the facing window. The effect of the lighting and the building’s curve felt uplifting.

Our campus is so beautiful at dusk and in the dark. Thompson Library shines like a beacon drawing in students. The library is immensely popular with its various reading rooms and study rooms. To me, this 2009 photo represents all of this academic energy that still happens at Ohio State even when the sun starts going down.

Jo shares her favorite buildings

Jo McCulty: Well, my favorite building on campus is Pomerene Hall. I’m a little partial because I did my graduate work there and I have a lot of wonderful memories of working with classmates and my advisor. It’s right next to Mirror Lake. There are these griffins above the doors on the north side of the building, and I think they represent strength and courage. I thought about them reminding everybody who comes through these doors of their own strength and courage, which I think you need a lot of to get through an academic career here. [The building] was originally the women’s union, and so there was a swimming pool on the first floor and there was a big gymnasium on the third floor. And I just thought it was a really incredible building.

They renovated it a couple of years ago, but they left — the hardwood floor up in the gym is still there. A lot of the original wood doors are still there. But there are modern touches that are beautiful. They did this three-story atrium where one whole wall is glass, so the morning sun just streams in there. There are little balconies where there are study areas that are just kind of hanging out in space with a huge modern painting on the wall, brightly colored. And it’s just such a cool space. I just love that we have places like that for students to be able to study.

Orton Hall is also one of my favorite buildings, and it’s absolutely stunning at night, just beautiful. I’ve heard students refer to it as the Hogwarts building, and I can see how the building has a magical feel to it, but what I really love is that its foundation is literally built on science. I just want to read you something from the School of Earth Sciences’ website. It says that, “Orton Hall is the only building in the world that was intentionally designed to reflect geologic time. The intricate stone carvings inside and outside are not only breathtaking, but also geologic in nature. The chimes in the bell tower are a reminder of the building is all about time.” So time and change — how appropriate is that? You can spend hours looking at details inside and out. Last summer, I was working on a feature about details around campus, and I discovered new things that I hadn’t seen. And I’ve been on this campus for 37 years.

I’ve always been amazed that undergraduate research is so pervasive at Ohio State. This is Jennifer Chao ’10 working in the cancer and genetics lab of Tzagournis Medical Research Facility in 2008. It thrills me to know that Ohio State provides students such great opportunities to get an early start on their careers.

Leading with learning is our way of life

Every photo is a puzzle, especially if you’re shooting science and research. Those photos can highlight the depth of curiosity of people in these fields, but they’re visually challenging because a lot of times it’s just so abstract. You talk to the researcher about what’s important, why it’s important and what’s the best visual thing we can show. It motivates me as a photographer because I’m curious about what it looks like. What would it look like if we did this? Or did that? I’ve always enjoyed putting the puzzle pieces together, then dealing with problems that arise in the moment and figuring out how we’re going to overcome that now. That’s kind of what happens on campus — they’re constantly finding out new things. Basic research is fundamental to progress. There’s joy in seeing an experience in a photograph; that’s what it’s all about. Photographing scientists, researchers and their work enables people to see real-world changes come about because of the research. They see the kinds of collaborations that are moving this university and our world forward.

I ventured into a chemistry class on the Lima campus and was reminded that you can’t beat the joy of discovering something new. This student is so gleeful, which comes across despite her eyes being covered by protective goggles. Her expression says: “Oh my gosh, this experiment is going to work!”

I love to show education taking place away from the Columbus campus. This assignment took me to East Harbor State Park on Lake Erie in 2018 to photograph an ichthyology class. This image depicts the collaborative work being done throughout our university, the richness of students’ experiences and our state’s natural beauty.

The Denman Undergraduate Research Forum is a great chance for students to share their phenomenal research. Their work is displayed on posters, which don’t offer many options for photos. However, in 2013, student Chibuokem Amuneke-Nze presented me a chance to show his research work actually being conducted in the McPherson Chemical Laboratory. It made for an interesting way to portray his project.

Anu Timple and James Dai hover over their student-designed rocket at a working session for the Buckeye Space Launch Initiative. They were entering this rocket in the Spaceport America Cup, an annual worldwide competition held in the New Mexico desert. I was so impressed by their dedication. Sometimes they stayed up until 3 a.m. working on this project. Such can-do spirit!

I crawled out to the end of a diving board to get this photo of the Ohio State Underwater Robotics Team. Members were testing the robot’s controller systems at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. It worked perfectly as planned, bringing a smile to the face of senior Cameron Spicer. It looked really cool, peering down at him through the water.

I have known Professor Heather Allen, right, since she came to the university in 2000 and I took photos of her setting up her chemistry laboratory. Now an Ohio State Distinguished Scholar, she recently won a prestigious national award from the American Chemical Society for outstanding interdisciplinary research in chemistry and physics — contributions that will outlast all of us. In this 2004 photo, she works with post-doctoral student Sandhya Gopalakrishnan on an ultrafast laser system.

We have such top-notch research facilities at Ohio State. One of them is this Laser Fusion Laboratory in the Physics Research Building. I remember walking into this lab in 2012. I was blown away by the high-tech nature of the facility, and I wanted it to look as cool as possible in my photo.

The Titan Microscope isn’t in a very large room, but it’s a huge device. Upon first seeing it in 2006, I realized I wanted a tall ladder to capture its size. This vantage point provides a different perspective on the two researchers, Ben Peterson and Henk Colijn, working with the microscope.

Whenever I was assigned to take a photo in a laboratory, I was always curious about the types of things scientists look at and how they look at them. In 2008 in the plant biology lab of Professor Iris Meier, I was able to see through the researcher’s petri dish and pick out the intricate, beautiful little plants. The details this graduate student was working with, that I could now see, were fascinating.

Jo on illustrating research

Jo McCulty: Research is so important at Ohio State, and there’s so much of it going on at all different levels. What impresses me so much is how much energy we put into undergraduate research. And the Denman Research Forum is one of our flagship programs where all these students do projects and then put them on a poster and faculty come in and evaluate them and talk to them and help them [with] how they can improve. And I thought this is nice, but visually a poster isn’t as exciting. And I wanted to know like, well, what does the research look like? I got to go into people’s labs, and this one student invited me into his lab where I could see what he’s actually doing and how he’s gathering his data so that he can write his final report. It just gave me a much richer understanding of how that research comes about.

And then other times, researchers they have a really abstract project and a really expensive black or tan machine to do it, which isn’t very visually exciting. So you have to really work it to make something visual. I went to photograph this Titan microscope, which was absolutely enormous in a very small room. So I kind of instantly looked and thought I needed a ladder, which they provided for me. And I managed to climb up there and get a pretty interesting shot.

And then, Heather Allen was a young faculty member who came and she had a brand new lab to set up. Heather Allen came, brand new faculty member, and she had a whole brand new lab to set up. Nothing in it whatsoever. And so I got to see her build it up and bring in her equipment and bring in students and watch her mentor them. She’s an amazing mentor and she’s a research superstar at Ohio State.

Classrooms were always interesting places to visit. It was such a privilege to see our professors and students in action. In this instance, I was drawn to this student on the right. He was so alert, engaged and energetic about a class visit by Mary Wilson of the Supremes, who talked about being an artist during the Civil Rights era.

We exude passion and compassion

Being a university photographer is an amazing role to have. I feel like Ohio State has been my playground. I could just wander and find things, stumble onto something incredible going on that I wouldn’t have thought up from behind my desk. Most of all, you find people. You meet them, find out a little about them and what they’re doing. They’re so amazing. Every single person has something really cool going on. Every single person. Every encounter is something to be grateful for because you learn something about someone else. They provide a spark. And so many incredible experiences. Every day. You mix that with something I’m devoted to — photography — and you get excited about the results. And then those results are memories. I hope these photos reinforce for alumni what a phenomenal place Ohio State is. I hope they remind them of the experiences they had here so that there’s a little bit of reminiscing in it for them. My life is tied up in these photos. But they aren’t about me; they’re about our community.

This 2017 photo of veterinary medicine students in a diagnostic imaging lab exemplifies the collaboration you’ll find every day across our university. Faculty know teamwork is a crucial skill students will need in order to meet future challenges. In this group project, I see joyful, successful veterinarians in the making.

I wandered into the ATI Greenhouse in 2016 to see what students were working on. This student, Jon Partee, was being very meticulous in examining the plants. I used a wide-angle lens to show the expanse of the greenhouse, providing viewers a sense of our location. He didn’t care at all that I was aiming my camera up close to his face. I love his intense attention to detail.

We paid tribute to nurses at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s James Cancer Hospital in a 1991 photo essay, “Iron Angels.” They’re all so remarkable. Marge Hill, right, is one nurse we profiled. Here she was being thanked for her care by Barbara Knight, who was leaving the hospital to return home to Greenville, Tennessee.

Early in my career, I tried to photograph a musician from atop a ladder while he leaned back on a piano. It didn’t go as planned. However, years later, I was able to try the concept again for a story about pianist Orlay Alonso ’15 PhD. It worked — except that the magazine designers needed a square shot, not a horizontal one. So, we didn’t use it. Well, now you finally get to see this photo!

Enrollment Services wanted to feature the babies of staff members for a 2004 holiday card. Beth McGuffey, art director on that shoot, and I thought we’d pose them doing O-H-I-Os. Oops! We quickly realized the babies couldn’t yet sit up, and their arms weren’t long enough to form an ‘O’ over their heads. I’m still laughing!

I was really drawn to the intensity of Robin Rice, associate professor emeritus of voice. He embodied our faculty’s vigor. The art he displayed on his classroom walls helped students understand they’re part of a legacy. I used that art to frame him and turned the camera slightly to help you read the photo in a circular fashion.

On this canoe trip in 2015, students traveled the Olentangy from campus to downtown to explore sustainability issues and reclamation projects with SUSTAINS Living Learning. The river runs through campus, but it’s not often top of mind, so it was cool to see students who cared so much about this local resource.

Graduate student Lillian Brown portrays a teacher in the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. This is from 2019 when I embedded myself with students and director Kevin McClatchy ’12 MFA — head of Ohio State’s renowned Shakespeare and Autism Project — as they brought the phenomenal production to the stage. It was a wonderful experience.

Once you set foot on campus, you are part of our Buckeye family. That message is clear in this moment at convocation at St. John Arena in 2009. By linking arms during the singing of “Carmen Ohio” at the traditional welcome event, these upperclassmen show new students just how we roll.

Jo learns a good lesson

Jo McCulty: Wow, there are so many amazing people on campus. I say that truly because everyone I’ve met has an amazing story and if it’s my job to photograph them, I get to learn about them and find a way to put them in the kind of light that is going to make a connection with the reader and make them interested in reading that story. So some of [my work] is documentary, but a lot of it is portraiture.

This one photo of the pianist leaning back on the piano is a shot that I composed a long time ago. And I learned a really important lesson from it because I envisioned this photo, and I got a ladder, and I set up the lighting. The office communicator stepped in [for photo testing setup] and looked up and I just thought it was a beautiful photo.

But when the faculty member came in, he was a little bit older and I asked him to lean back and look up and he just couldn’t do that. So we had to change the composition and do something a little different, but I learned that it’s really important to know who it is you are getting ready to photograph and are they going to be able to do what you’re asking them to do.

We know we’re better together

The photos collected here were not created in a vacuum. Throughout my entire career, there has been a multitude of people behind the scenes who contributed in some way to ensure these photos could appear in a variety of formats — from webpages and digital channels to postcards, brochures, magazines and framed prints lining hallways in many Ohio State medical buildings around Columbus.

In the audio below, I talk about a few colleagues who always had my back, literally! I wish I could tell a story about every person who has helped me along my journey here; they are all phenomenal. But I’m talking about Buckeyes — so you know we don’t shy away from hard work. We help people whenever and wherever we can. And we love what we do. We love to tell stories about Buckeyes.

With sincere Buckeye pride, gratitude and love,

Jo McCulty's signature

Jo thanks colleagues

Jo McCulty: Well, what I really want you to know about all of this is that it’s not just me. There are whole teams of people from administrators to coordinators to leaders to colleagues to writers, designers — all kinds of people who help make these photos come about. One person in particular [who] was really important is Kevin Fitzsimons. I worked with him for 33 years and we were both photographers, so we hardly — we saw each other in the office, but never really out in the field. One shoot before he left, he came with me. I was photographing some dancers. We set up a studio with a seamless and I needed him to stand in and he started dancing. So I have some really fun photos of Kevin dancing, and it just wraps up a lot of memories for me of him. I appreciated him so much.

And then another time when we were taking a canoe trip, some students did a project where they were learning about sustainability and some reclamation projects on the Olentangy River. They took a canoe from Lane Avenue all the way downtown. I got in the bottom of the middle of a boat and my colleague, Monica DeMeglio, paddled in the front and a student from the recreation center was paddling in the back. And I thought, “Oh, this is going to be great. I’m going to get these great photos of students on the water” — until we realized that that summer was kind of a drought and we hit parts where the canoe bottomed out. Instead of me getting in and out all the time, they just decided it was easier if Monica and this student would kind of carry me down the river in these dry spots. So Monica, thank you so much. You made me feel like a queen.

Lastly, such a memorable trip. I got this great assignment to cover the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. And I went with my colleague, Senior Writer Todd Jones, and oh my, what a trip we had. And we did some stuff before [the parade]. There was a pep rally and we got to see some fabulous things in New York and see where they were blowing up the balloons. The next day, the day of the parade, it was so cold. The students in the band were just freezing and we were marching the parade. Sometimes as a photographer, you really get into looking at what you’re photographing. And I felt this big yank from the back of my coat. And here Todd was saving me from getting run over by Al Roker in a golf cart.

So thank you, Todd, for saving me from Al. But then that wasn’t all. A couple minutes after that, he’s pulling me again because I’m about to get entangled in this giant balloon because it was so windy that day. So Todd, thank you so much. That was a fabulous, memorable trip. Thank you.

Just before he retired, fellow photographer Kevin Fitzsimons was helping me set up for dance silhouette shots. I needed a stand-in and he started dancing. The photo just wraps up a lot of memories for me. I appreciated him so much. Thank you, Kevin.

In 2015, when I was photographing students canoeing on the Olentangy River, my colleague Monica DeMeglio came along, and she and a student paddled. I sat in the middle so I could take photos. But there was a drought that summer, and the canoe kept bottoming out. Rather than me getting in and out, they decided it would be easier if they carried me in the canoe over dry riverbed. I felt bad for them … but I also felt like a queen! Thanks, Monica.

Senior writer Todd Jones and I covered Ohio State’s marching band in the 2018 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. During the parade, as I was focusing on taking photos, Todd saved me not once but twice! He pulled me out of the way when I was going to get run over by Al Roker in a golf cart and when I was about to get tangled in the lines for the Toothless balloon, from the How to Train Your Dragon movies, that was getting blown around by the wind. Thank you, Todd!