Versatility

In addition to black & white darkroom and digital color photography, students explore a variety of photographic practices, including large format, studio lighting, alternative processes, and digital imaging. Photography’s paradoxical role as both evidence of the real and window into a manipulated world allows for the recontextualization of cultural, ethical, economic, aesthetic, and psychological themes.

Mission

Students address the impact of an image-mediated world through performances for the camera and straight documentation, by connecting formal and aesthetic elements to larger theoretical issues, as they establish an authentic sense of self as artists.

Courses focus on developing technical and conceptual aspects of the medium, while emphasizing the photograph’s potential to engage meaningfully with ideas and society. The area also encourages the exploration and redefinition of the role of photography within a contemporary fine art context, allowing for experimentation with image appropriation, presentation, and installation, as well as the creation of interdisciplinary collaborations among students, faculty, and the community.