John Valentino is a Professor of New Media and Animation, teaching 3D modeling, 2D and 3D animation, image manipulation, film, and photography. Originally from New York State, he established the New Media and Animation program in 2001, transforming an art area focused solely on image manipulation into a comprehensive curriculum that includes interactive artworks, video production, and 2D and 3D modeling and animation. He was also the first faculty member in Louisiana to incorporate CNC milling and 3D printing technologies into a visual arts department.
Before joining Southeastern, Valentino served as the Associate Director of the Arts in Education Institute of Western New York, a Lincoln Center affiliate, where he built partnerships with educators to develop experiential units of study focused on various art forms, including dance, music, theater, visual arts, and architecture. Professor Valentino also worked as a freelance journalist for The Associated Press and as a writer and photojournalist for The Syracuse Post-Standard and The Ithaca Times.
Professor Valentino was an adjunct professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Buffalo, where he taught photography, digital imaging, and contemporary imaging theory. He also served as a curator for the Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Art and has written extensively about digital technology. He is the co-author of the textbook "Photographic Possibilities: The Expressive Use of Ideas, Materials and Processes" (Focal Press, 2001). Additionally, he contributed to the textbook "Exploring Color Photography: From Darkroom to Digital Studio" (McGraw-Hill, July 2004). In 2007, he illustrated the book "China's Sacred Sites," by Nan Shunxun and Beverly Foit-Albert. (Himalayan Institute Press).
Professor Valentino has exhibited his artwork in New York, Texas, Ohio, Connecticut, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, and Nevada. His commercial images have appeared in magazines such as TV Guide (Manhattan edition), Telegraph Magazine in London, the Photo Review in Philadelphia, Ryuko Tsuchin in Japan, and DNA Magazine in Australia.
