BFA.PHOTO.120 - BFA in Photography

2025 - 2026 | Curriculum | 4-year program

Following the first-year program in Experimental and Foundation Studies, in your sophomore year you begin the Photography BFA program by exploring analog and digital processes and techniques via various camera formats, traditional darkroom print production and digital workflows. Through close examination of photographs, you engage in deep critical thinking to develop a visual literacy informed by the history of photography, as well as seminars focused on the impact of photography in visualizing difference in class, race, gender and identity.

During junior year you expand on this knowledge, focusing on experimentation within the photographic medium and others, as well as materials, subjects and approaches to making. At this time you begin to produce self-directed projects, areas of inquiry, methods of research and articulation of conceptual and abstract ideas through group critiques, writing assignments and public presentations.

Your senior year is focused on developing work that will map a trajectory for an artistic practice that sustains itself beyond the bounds of the BFA and into a professional practice. The capstone degree project is a written thesis composed of critical reflection, influence and a definition of the scope and evolution of your own work, complemented by self-designed solo and two-person exhibitions in the Red Eye Gallery, the department’s dedicated exhibition space.

Learning outcomes

Graduates of the BFA program are prepared to:

• develop personally driven work that demonstrates complexity and individuality.

• approach their practice as an evolving, exploration of forms, ideas, issues, and materials that are the culmination of work ethic, reflection and research.

• shape the context and dialogue around their work through oral presentations and writing.

• show proficiency in advanced analog and digital techniques and how those techniques relate to the construction of meaning.

• demonstrate understanding and sensitivity of the power relationships of representation and photography.

• present ability to critically reflect on one's own work and others from open, challenging and collective viewpoints.