Meet the Staff

Twenty-five years after Nora Kennedy joined the Museum as the first staff Photograph Conservator, the Department of Photograph Conservation was established under Kennedy's leadership as the Sherman Fairchild Conservator of Photographs. The Department is devoted to the conservation of photographs, bound volumes, and time-based media. In addition to exhibition, loan, and acquisitions responsibilities, Kennedy continues to expand the Museum's initiatives in education, scholarship, and outreach. Kennedy teaches at NYU's Institute of Fine Arts Conservation Center, and lectures and conducts workshops internationally. Kennedy received her BFA from York University, Toronto, and her Master of Science degree in conservation from the University of Delaware's art conservation program.

Katie Sanderson joined the lab in 2010 as the Research Scholar in Photograph Conservation, and joined the permanent staff two years later. She earned her Master's degree at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where she is currently a member of the adjunct faculty. Her work at The Met includes exhibitions, loans, acquisitions, climate monitoring, and research measuring color change in photographs over time using a spectrophotometer and microfading tester. The main goal of this work is to develop a better understanding of the effects of exhibition and storage conditions on our collections.

Jonathan Farbowitz joined The Met in 2019 as the Associate Conservator of Time-Based Media. He cares for the film, video, audio, slide, and software-based artworks in the collection. From 2016–2019 Jonathan was a Fellow in the Conservation of Computer-Based Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, where he was part of the restoration process for the museum's three web artworks. Jonathan has lectured internationally on conservation and digital preservation topics. He holds an MA in Moving Archiving and Preservation from New York University and a BA in Film from Vassar College.

Natasha Kung joined The Met in 2023 as Assistant Conservator. She initially joined the Department as a pre-program intern in 2016 and was later hired as a Research Assistant in 2017 to work on the exhibition, Monumental Journey: The Daguerreotypes of Girault De Prangey. She is an active member of the American Institute for Conservation, serves as co-chair of the Photographic Materials Group Wiki, and is a Research Assistant for the upcoming Getty Conservation Institute's Readings in Conservation publication. She holds an MS in the Conservation of Art and Historic Artifacts and an MA in the History of Art and Archaeology from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts. Her work at The Met focuses on exhibitions and acquisitions, along with climate monitoring and preservation of the permanent collection.

Tess Hamilton has joined The Met staff in a new position that encompasses both photograph conservation as well as time-based media conservation responsibilities. Tess received her BFA in Art and English from Yale University in 2017 and her MS in Conservation and MA in Art History from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts Conservation Center in 2022. She completed her graduate school internship at the Weisman Preservation Center, Harvard University. Since October 2022 she has been the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation Fellow at the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum working on a research project conducting technical analysis on the Museum’s collection of nearly 200 Robert Mapplethorpe prints.  

Michaela Lott started her position as Conservation Apprentice in 2022, following a summer internship with the department. Her experience includes working on an installation piece at LAX and participating in the UCLA/Mellon Opportunity for Diversity in Conservation program. In her current role, Michaela works with the James Van Der Zee Archive, a collection of 20,000 prints and 30,000 negatives. She is conducting treatment, written and photographic documentation, and research on 500 of the prints. Michaela is in the preprogram phase of her conservation career and this opportunity is helping her prepare for graduate school and build her network.

Aleya Lehmann joined The Met as Assistant Administrator in October 2019. Trained as an artist, Aleya earned her BFA from Boston University and her MFA from The American University, and has worked in the arts since 1986, both as an administrator and as an independent artist. She began her career at The New Museum (1986–1994), followed by six years at Art Table (1994–2000), the Jersey City Museum (2000–2004), and the Appraisers Association of America (2004–2013). She continues to maintain her painting studio in Midtown Manhattan. As the administrator for the department, Aleya is responsible for budget-related issues, general administrative issues, online and printed materials including the design of the Bulletin, and cataloging and imaging the Photograph Conservation Study Collection.