By Rhodes Neuner

After more than two decades at Collegiate, Upper School photography teacher Taylor Dabney is stepping away, closing this 22-year chapter of his career. Known for his deep passion for photography, Dabney leaves behind a lasting impact on generations of students. 

Before arriving at Collegiate, Dabney’s path to teaching was anything but traditional. After graduating from the Pratt Institute in New York City, Dabney began his career working in film animation and photography. In an interview with The Match, Dabney reflected on his time in New York and noted his grueling one-hundred-hour work weeks, which eventually led him to step away and change courses in his career. 

This turning point led Dabney to Vermont, where he worked in an environmental education program, which was Dabney’s first real experience teaching. From there, Dabney turned to freelance photography and community-based projects. 

One of Dabney’s portraits from his Teenage Mothers project.

One of his most notable projects was his Teenage Mothers project, where he documented the lives of teenage mothers in the 1990s, and even taught them the skills to help them document their journeys themselves. Dabney explained, “I thought, what if I teach them photography? Maybe they will photograph their children, and document their own journeys.” The project became a defining moment in Dabney’s career. 

Dabney moved back to Richmond in the late 1980s to become a photographer for the Valentine Museum. Dabney also worked with local schools to help teach students and chaperone them for community projects. This eventually led Dabney to Collegiate, when former visual arts department chair Alice Massie (‘79) called Dabney in 2003 and asked if he would be interested in teaching part-time at Collegiate. Dabney agreed and noted that he would teach classes in the mornings, then go to a photo shoot in the afternoon. 

Dabney’s teaching was never about producing professional photographers. Instead, he focused on visual interpretation. Dabney said, “I don’t teach here to create photographers; I teach to help influence people’s perception of photography.” He added, “If you don’t understand how a camera works, and how photographs tell stories, you’re going to be lied to,” referring to the increasing presence of AI into the digital photography world. “Especially now, it’s getting hard for me to pick out doctored photographs.”

Dabney isn’t fully stepping away from photography. He plans on starting a new project, focused on giving young people a voice through the lens of photography. “Instead of having the media talk about who people are, and their stories, how about we give them a voice, let them say who they really are.”

A Dabney self-portrait.

Despite Dabney looking ahead to his next projects and adventures, he did step back and admit there are things he will miss about Collegiate. When asked what he would miss most, Dabney’s answer was clear: “The community… The students, the people I work with, even the cafeteria staff and grounds crew.” When asked Dabney how he wants to be remembered around Collegiate, he said, “I’m not worried about that.” Instead, he hopes his impact is among those who have left his classroom viewing the world differently.

Honors Photography student Quinn Pace (‘26) said, “Mr. Dabney has inspired me not just as a student, but as a person. He has shown me a new lens to view the world that I could have never imagined.” Former Intermediate Photography student Henry Brost (‘26) shared, “Mr. Dabney was one of the best teachers I could have gotten in high school. His devotion and love for making his students better photographers is something I look up to.”

As a former photography student for three years, I can certainly attest to Dabney’s impact on how I view the world around me. What started as the basics of how to use the camera quickly turned into a deeper understanding of all that goes into a single picture. Dabney didn’t just impact me as a photographer, but as a person, and I will be sure to carry with me the lessons and wisdom with me in my future endeavors.

All photos courtesy of Taylor Dabney.