Photo by Lauren Canna/The Choate News
Look at any photo on the Choate website. It likely came from one source: Mr. Ross Mortensen, Manager of Media Resources and a dedicated observer of campus life. Mr. Mortensen can be found in a variety of locales across the Choate campus, photographing Choate students from afar.
Mr. Mortensen was drawn to photography because of its enlightening perspective on the surrounding world. He explained, “Photography, for me, is a wonderful way to experience occurrences from a different angle in life. Looking at people and places with a different eye than you normally would have otherwise is fascinating to me.”
Mr. Mortensen worked at several internships after college, including work with Hartford public schools, the Bushnell Performing Arts Center, the Hillstead Museum, and Connecticut Public Television. At Connecticut Public Television, Mr. Mortensen met many like-minded staff in the Media Lab department, who encouraged his creative aspirations in digital media. There, Mr. Mortensen learned that “media is constantly evolving and changing,” realizing that photography was about “studying, reading, and learning as much as you can about many different fields that are related to one another.”
After working in the Communications Department at the Taft School, Mr. Mortensen thought that it was time for a change. Mr. Mortensen wanted to combine his love of media relations with a prep school environment. Choate was a good fit for both.
Mr. Mortensen’s day-to-day job is dependent on the happenings around campus. He can typically be seen working with school departments to fulfill arising multimedia needs, filming events, planning media projects, and collaborating with web and print departments to curate Choate’s online media presence.
Since his arrival at Choate, Mr. Mortensen has built a digitized system of all the photos and videos that he takes. Mr. Mortensen said, “All this data has become effectively an archive of Choate media from the past few years. We now have quite a collection and assist with people’s needs for media requests.”
Although Mr. Mortensen has experienced many interesting moments since his arrival at Choate, one stood out to him. He described, “About two months after I started, I was tasked with photographing the all-school picture for Choate’s 125th anniversary. From a cherry picker. High in the air. With no real idea how to use the thing. I wouldn’t say I’m afraid of heights, but when you get some elevation in one of those things on a cold, windy day, it can certainly be interesting.”
From cherry pickers to photography runs, Mr. Mortensen has found his Choate experience deeply meaningful. He commented, “Working with my associates in the Communications Department has been a very positive experience for me. The department is larger than other ones I have worked with in the past, and we work on a much larger variation of tasks. But we all collaborate with one another and get things done, regardless of what comes our way.”
