Thursday, Oct. 30, 8:30-9:45am CT
Location: Blake campus, Dining Commons

This edition of our popular Breakfast at Blake speaker series featured 2025 Young Alumna Award recipient Thea Traff ʼ09. Q&A followed the presentation.

Thea Traff '09 is a freelance editorial photographer. Her portraiture focuses on the psychology of human communication and connection through the use of dramatic lighting and sculptural poses.

Traff’s work is frequently used for profiles and articles in the New York Times including commissions of Robert de Niro, Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and President Joe Biden for the New Yorker.

Traff started her career as a photo editor at the New Yorker Magazine in 2013. She likens her experience in this role as “editorial photography graduate school.” From 2018-20, Traff was senior photo editor at Time Magazine. She credits these experiences as further developing her storytelling abilities and her photography approach.

Traff received her undergraduate degree at Colgate University receiving a bachelor's in philosophy, art and art history. While at Blake, she played basketball, softball and tennis. She studied abroad for a semester in Switzerland in 2006.