Photographic Resource Center Appoints New Executive Director

Founded in 1976, the Photographic Resource Center (PRC) is an independent, non-profit organization located on the campus of Boston University. The PRC provides its members and the general public with thought-provoking exhibitions, distinctive education programs, wide-ranging resources, and unique special events.

Its Board of Directors voted on January 11, 2010 and appointed Glenn Ruga, as the new Executive Director. Ruga comes from a diverse background in photography, graphic design, non-profit management, and international development.

In 2008 Ruga founded Socialdocumentary.net, a website and organization devoted to documentary photography. Today the website has more than 200 online documentary exhibits, featuring diverse themes from around the world. For the last 25 years, Ruga was owner and creative director of Visual Communications, a graphic design studio based in Lowell, Massachusetts, that is employed by many different public service and corporate clients, including the United States Campaign to Ban Landmines, Harvard Medical School, and the Health Effects Institute.

From 1993 to 2006, Ruga founded, then directed, the Center for Balkan Development, an NGO that advocates justice in the Balkans and provides humanitarian and reconstruction assistance for victims of genocide. During his volunteer work with the center, Ruga traveled to the region regularly to oversee the different development projects. He also produced two photographic exhibitions focused on violent struggles in the region. The exhibitions traveled to a wide range of locations throughout the U.S. and Europe.

The PRC, as the leading photographic organization in Boston, will look to Ruga to continue the current schedule of exhibitions and public educational programs and will draw on his background to expand the focus of PRC by bridging the gap between documentary and fine art photography.

In a press release, Ruga said, “I am honored by this appointment. Building on the thirty-year success of the PRC as a renowned fine arts photography institution, I hope to draw on my background in documentary [photography] to bring a broader public interest to the organization, and to fine art photography, by recognizing the seismic shift in the medium since the advent of digital technology.”

DAVID YOCKEL JR. is a graduate student in Creative Writing at The College at Brockport and an editorial intern for Afterimage.

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