Judith Taylor, 56, artist and Arcadia professor

Fresh from graduating summa cum laude at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1978, Judith Taylor lived what her brother, John, called a "hardscrabble" life in the East Village of Manhattan.

She worked for prominent photographers, he said, but as "nothing more than a lab assistant, doing touch-ups from negatives."

Yet, because she was living in the midst of all sorts of artistic experimentations, he said, "It was a good time to be broke."

Her Manhattan adventure ended when her apartment was broken into, he said, but that didn't end her own artistic experimentations.

Ms. Taylor, 56, a full professor and the program coordinator of photography at Arcadia University, died Jan. 26 of endocarditis at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She lived in Chestnut Hill.

A flag honored her passing.

Jerry Greiner, president of Arcadia, where Ms. Taylor had taught since 1995, ordered that the Arcadia flag in front of Grey Towers Castle, the campus landmark, be lowered to half-staff in her honor through tomorrow.

Ms. Taylor was no stranger to health problems, her brother said.

When she was 21, doctors diagnosed a form of lymph-node cancer and treated it aggressively, he said, but that did not stop her from beginning her graduate studies in Rhode Island.

In 2003, she had a heart attack, he said. "She was aware of her poor health and made plans anyway," he said. "She was planning her third, if not fourth, trip to take students to Italy, six weeks from now."

Since July 2008, Ms. Taylor had held the two-year appointment to the Frank and Evelyn Steinbrucker Endowed Chair in Arcadia's department of art and design. It was given for "research in alternative and non-silver photographic processes," according to Arcadia's Web site.

In a 2000 review of a group show at the campus art gallery, Inquirer art critic Edward J. Sozanski wrote that Ms. Taylor "prints pinhole-camera images of clouds on gold-toned paper [to] eliminate any clues as to scale or location."

In 2002, Sozanski reviewed an Olde City exhibition, "Ophelia Rising," which, he wrote, "attempts to explore the emotional and psychological minefield of adolescence and young womanhood."

"Taylor produces the show's strongest, most direct symbolism - gold-toned prints of bleached-out braids and a ponytail set against black backgrounds," Sozanski wrote. "Loss of hair equals loss of childhood innocence."

Born in Philadelphia, Ms. Taylor graduated from Great Valley High School in Chester County in 1971, earned a bachelor's degree in photography and film at Pennsylvania State University in 1975, and received a master of fine arts in photography at the Rhode Island School of Design.

She returned to the Philadelphia region in 1981, her brother said, "found a fantastic carriage house on an estate in Chester County," and lived in a loft in Germantown before moving to the top of Chestnut Hill.

From 1981 to 1986, she was an adjunct professor at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, and from 1980 to 1995, she was an adjunct professor and visiting artist at Rutgers University-Camden.

In the 2002-03 academic year, she took a sabbatical to be a resident artist at Hospitalfield House, an arts center in Arbroath, Scotland.

At Arcadia, Ms. Taylor was campus president of the Association of American University Professors from 2005 to 2007.

Her work is in the collections, among others, of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bryn Mawr College, Lehigh University, and the State Museum of Pennsylvania.

"She was a vital girl," her brother said, "who would tell you, 'If there's a house fire, grab the cat first, then get the art. Don't forget the Phillies' tickets.' "

Besides her brother, Ms. Taylor is survived by her mother, Nancy; a sister, Jane; and her former husband, Alan Goldstein.

A memorial was set for 2 p.m. Sunday at Paoli Presbyterian Church, 225 S. Valley Rd.