On March 5, 2026, the latest in a series of faculty portrait exhibits opened on the second floor of Sterling Hall of Medicine (SHM). All portraits in the Aperture series, including the new portraits for Aperture IV, can be viewed online.
The exhibit was coordinated by the Program for Art in Public Spaces, led by Darin Latimore, MD, deputy dean for collaborative excellence, and Anna Reisman, MD, director of the Program for Humanities in Medicine.
In the summer of 2018, Yale School of Medicine (YSM) took a critical look at our walls. Students, staff, and faculty had raised the issue many times: hundreds of people walk through these halls each day. What message does the artwork convey about us?
At that time, the hallways of Sterling Hall of Medicine (SHM) were lined almost exclusively with a uniform style of art: vertical, wooden-framed oil portraits of deceased men, without context. Most had no identifying information, were displayed haphazardly, and the frames were deteriorating. The lack of creativity, quality, and representation stood in stark contrast to the vitality and vibrancy of the remarkable people who walk these halls each day.
This launched an analysis into how YSM should be visually represented on its walls, which eventually became the Program for Art in Public Spaces.
In 2018, the community celebrated a Century of Women at YSM, and throughout a year of events and honors, the school hired professional photographer Robert A. Lisak, MFA ’81, to take powerful, contextual portraits of our women faculty, past and present, junior and senior, in the fields of research, education, and patient care. In March 2019, he donated museum-quality prints of the portraits to YSM, which launched Aperture I, the first in the series of this exhibition. The name Aperture was chosen because it refers to a space or gap, signifying the scarcity of women on the walls of SHM. In photography, aperture is also the size of the opening in the lens through which light passes. Here, aperture represents casting light in the form of public attention, directed toward recognizing and celebrating women faculty in medicine, who have long been cast in the shadows.
The response was overwhelming. In a brief label next to each portrait, the women shared their journeys, their advice to the next generation, and what they would tell their younger selves. These were not just faces on a wall—they were stories, inspiration, and representation. There were more portraits than could be displayed at once, so Aperture became a series. It is now in its fourth iteration, with almost 100 faculty photographs.
As our community has grown and evolved, so too must our recognition of the extraordinary faculty who are educators, scientists, healers, and leaders at YSM. Each portrait represents not only individual achievement, but also a commitment to ensuring that the next generation sees what is possible.
Portraits of Strength is a selection of images taken between February and October 2021 that documents the experiences of health care providers, scientists, and other essential workers across Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Hospital during the COVID era.
The Aperture series is one of several projects led by the committee. The committee has also:
Today, our exhibitions benefit from the professional museum standards of our library staff, especially Terry Dagradi, exhibit coordinator. She and rest of the committee—Melissa Grafe, head of the medical historical library, and Lena Smith Parker, relationship manager for the Office of Communications—ensure we display art with the professionalism that reflects our commitment to treating these works, and the people they represent, with the respect and care they deserve.
We invite you to explore the artwork around SHM and join us in celebrating the ongoing effort to make Yale School of Medicine a place where everyone can see themselves in the stories we share.