Photography and Media
BFA, MFA

The Program in Photography and Media is committed to educating independent artists in a world where photographic imagery and new media representations and strategies are omnipresent. From foundation work through graduate studies, courses are designed to challenge conventional notions of artistic practice and to question the position of representation within contemporary culture. The program encourages debate and experimentation, since nothing is stable or even particularly comfortable in photography's relation to the other arts-especially in an environment that includes so many new practices. The faculty represents a broad range of those practices, some purely photographic, some entirely digital and others branching off into writing and publishing, painting, video, filmmaking, assemblage, net art, digital media and installation.

The BFA curriculum begins with a year of intensive foundation work. This is followed by a mixture of courses that includes classes on specific issues in photography, video and Internet practice, the histories of photography and film, media theories and semiotics, as well as critique classes, technical workshops and independent studies. Students receive ample feedback through faculty reviews and one-on-one meetings.

The MFA curriculum centers on graduate critiques, seminars and independent studies as students devote most of their time to creating a distinctive body of work. The seminars stress relevant critical theory while the critique classes form the basis for dialogue about ongoing work. During the second year of residency, all MFA candidates must present a final project and pass a faculty review of this work in order to graduate.

Beginning undergraduate students share studios while MFA students and most upper-level undergraduates are assigned individual studios.