Photograph by Matthew Monteith
In the Photography Department, we see our medium as an ongoing opportunity for conversations, both visual and verbal, about evolving perspectives in a changing world. Students learn an array of analogue and digital techniques in order to make images that reflect their unique perspectives and distinctive stories. Rooted in a spirit of experimentation and thoughtful engagement with the history and traditions of the medium, our curriculum enables students to become accomplished and innovative image makers. Through critique, collaboration, and critical thinking, students from all our programs strive together with accomplished faculty to explore the fascinating and flexible visual language of photography.
Approximately 80 undergraduates share exceptional darkrooms, collaborative workspaces, and classrooms with our sizable population of MFA and Post-Baccalaureate students. Graduate students also have use of our graduate digital lab and private studios on campus. Our extensive facilities include a brand-new lighting studio, a book-making studio, two gang darkrooms as well as individual darkrooms, a non-silver darkroom, three digital labs equipped with large format printers, Flextight scanners, and current Mac workstations running Adobe Creative Cloud.
Our celebrated Photography Lecture Series brings several speakers – artists, historians, editors, and curators from diverse backgrounds and geographic locations – to the college every semester. These are leading practitioners in the medium who inspire fresh conversations and new ideas amongst those in our department and in the broader public.
We are located in the center of Boston’s dynamic intellectual and artistic community which offers an enormous resource replete with an almost endless array of lectures, exhibitions, films, and concerts. Visitors from all over the world can be found speaking in one venue or another every day of the week and most are open to the public. Such a vibrant community means that a plethora of internship opportunities are available in museums and galleries, at commercial studios, or with individual artists.
Photography at MassArt is taught from a fine art perspective yet the creative skills our students learn are applicable to employment across the spectrum. Our alumni, both graduate and undergraduate, go on to careers in many aspects of the arts. Some become entrepreneurs and commercial photographers or work in publishing. Others have established careers as teachers in colleges or high schools. Still others work in galleries, museums, or other venues. Most continue as exhibiting artists regardless of their line of professional work. We strongly believe the qualities that art study encourages – creativity, problem solving, listening, compassion, and confidence – are transferable to a huge range of pursuits. MassArt Photography students graduate from our programs with the creative agency, analytic thinking skills, and discipline to pursue their dreams, whatever they may be.
PHOTOGRAPHY LECTURE SERIES
Visiting artists are an integral part of MassArt Photography programs. Recent participants include: Diana Markosian, Dani and Sheilah Restack, Ahndraya Parlato, Priya Kambli, Jessica Hong, Alejandro Cartagena, Marvin Heiferman, Wendy Red Star, David Alekhuogie, Zora J. Murff, Patty Chang, Hannah Price, Binh Danh, Pixy Liao, Genevieve Gaignard, Carmen Winant, James Welling, Ramell Ross, Curran Hatleberg, Tyler Green, Sama Alshaibi, Roger Ballen, Yto Barrada, Marina Berio, Makeda Best, Lucas Blalock, Bruno Ceschel, David Chickey, Sam Contis, Tim Davis, Dru Donovan, Jim Dow, Carolyn Drake, Mark Alice Durant, Cristina de Middel, Jessica Eaton, Roe Ethridge, Larry Fink, Nicole Fleetwood, Carl Fuldner, Daniel Gordon, Katy Grannan, Kris Graves, Leslie Hewitt, David Hilliard, Justine Kurland, Deana Lawson, Laura Letinsky, Lesley Martin, Nicholas Muellner, Zanele Muholi, Adi Nes, Corinne Noordenbos, Oluremi Onabanjo, Arthur Ou, Christian Patterson, Nigel Poor, Barbara Probst, Richard Renaldi, Eva Respini, Andres Serrano, Fazal Sheikh, Erin Shirreff, Jem Southam, Lucy Soutter, Mark Steinmetz, Barbara Tannenbaum, Sara VanDerBeek, Jeff Whetstone, Dr. Deborah Willis, John Willis, Rahim Fortune, Tommy Kha, Yng-Ru Chen, Gillian Laub and Melissa Catanese.
To learn more about our Photography Lecture Series and sign up for emails about upcoming lectures, click here.
Events
ALUMNI PANEL
Tuesday | April 2 | 2pm
PENELOPE UMBRICO
Tuesday | April 9 | 2pm
JOIRI MINAYA
Tuesday | April 23 | 2pm