Every year, I travel to NYC to photograph Teachers College, Columbia University’s Long-Term Employee Recognition ceremony. This year, the event celebrated faculty and staff who have worked at the college for anywhere from 10 to 40 years. This was the 5th year that I’ve photographed the event and I feel blessed to continue being asked year after year to capture the event. I photographed this event on my own and had a great time covering the event.

I attended TC as a student from 2013-2017 and during my time at the college, I’m grateful to have been able to build some lasting friendships and professional relationships that have referred people to my photography over the years.

Part of my role that day was to capture individual photos of each of the honorees receiving their awards. To not make this post super long, I will only show a few of those individual photos.

Here's some of what I captured.

Photographing Teachers College, Columbia University's Long-Term Employee Recognition 2026 /June 20, 2026 by Christian Hernandez