Paul Runyon is an artist and educator who, for more than three decades, influenced students who went on to build successful careers in photography and related creative fields. He has been deeply committed to mentoring students and preparing them for professional success, emphasizing visual literacy, critical thinking, adaptability, and storytelling. At the same time, his artistic work examines how the masses interact with the contemporary Western American landscape, exploring its complexities, contradictions, and ambiguities, and the ways human presence reshapes the environments it inhabits.

Runyon’s photographs are held in major collections, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Portrait Gallery, the United States Information Agency, and the Mellon Bank Corporate Collection. His work has been exhibited widely, including in Streets of Philadelphia: Photography 1970–1985 at the Philadelphia Print Center and Philadelphia Photographers 1975–1985 at Santa Bannon Fine Art Gallery. He received several faculty research grants in support of his ongoing work.

As Program Director of Drexel University’s Photography Program, Runyon guided students through one of the most transformative periods in photography—from analog and darkroom practice to digital imaging and, most recently, AI-generated imagery. Under his leadership, the program became one of the most respected in the United States. Graduates have gone on to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Photojournalism and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for the Arts, with work featured at AIPAD, in Times Square, and in major publications including The New York Times Magazine, Time, Philadelphia Magazine, Architectural Digest, Martha Stewart Living, Newsweek, and Italian Vogue. Alumni work is also included in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, with many having published monographs.

Most recently, Runyon oversaw a comprehensive curriculum overhaul that introduced courses in artificial intelligence and emerging media, preparing students not only for today’s photographic landscape, but for the future of image-making itself.