Photography

The photography concentration in the Department of Visual Arts is committed to teaching students the aesthetic, critical, theoretical, technical and historical aspects of the medium. An emphasis on increasing the student’s visual literacy within the highly mediated environment that we inhabit is central to the development of creative work. Courses in basic darkroom skills, digital imaging, and camera management lay the foundation from which more advanced conceptual, technical, and aesthetic issues are formulated.

In-depth investigations of the history of photography help to articulate the role that the medium has played in 19th-and 20th-century visual culture. At all levels of coursework, students are encouraged to freely explore areas of personally generated subject matter as a means of engaging camera, self and environment. Digital and traditional darkroom based tools are utilized at all levels of the photography. Use of photography in conjunction with other media and methods is explored in upper-level courses, including installation, performance, and time-based media.