Photo Credit:: Jenna Rerucha
Photography
The philosophy of the photography
concentration is experiential with a great deal of time spent with
hands-on image making.Students who have completed the photo
concentration will have practiced black/white, color and large format
photography.
The Department also offers a Minor in Studio Art, where one can take 12 credits in Photography.
Courses entail creative projects which will
push the students imaginative limits as well as courses with a more
technical or commercial bent. Throughout their three years of
photography, students will be encouraged to develop a personal style,
and will be allowed to perfect and expand on that style in their
advanced classes. All photo classes involve group and individual
critiques which encourage students to talk about their work and in turn
build visual and verbal art vocabularies. Class critiques are also
important for interaction between students, here they are able to give
and receive peer input.
Through their college art experience all
studio students become involved with the annual faculty critique,
students show their work to the entire faculty for a give and take
discussion of their work and their progress. During the second semester
of their senior year photo majors will enroll in the Photo Thesis, ART
497, where they work toward their senior exhibition in the Reilly
Gallery, this becomes the capstone for their photography and art
experiences. Also in their senior year students work with their advisors
to fine tune and develop their portfolios.
The Photo lab complex is housed in
Hunt-Cavanagh Hall and contains a workroom, class room/studio, two film
developing rooms, a large gang black/white lab with 10 enlargers, and
three color labs. The photo labs are open mornings, afternoons, evenings
and on weekends. Photo students are assigned individual lab times, but
are also allowed and encouraged to use the lab at times other than their
assigned labs, space permitting.
Graduates with a concentration in
photography, or students who have taken courses which mirror the
concentration, are working in such diverse fields such as: fine art
photography, professional photography, photo journalism/documentary,
teaching, publishing, graphic design, sales, the business world and
currently the Peace Corps.
A typical photography concentration requires a
minimum of 18 credit hours in photography. In addition to the photo
concentration students will be taking an additional 36 credits hours in
other art areas, of which 15 credit hours will be the art foundation, 12
credit hours will be in Art History, and the remainder studio
electives, one of which must be in a 3D medium.
Recommended elective courses: ARH 208,
History of Photography; ARH 209, Modern Art; ARH 304, American and
European Art Since 1945; ARH 302, Nineteenth Century European Art;
continuing Drawing classes; ART 105, Computer Art; ART 108, Introduction
to DeskTop Publishing; ART 147, Electronic Arts Silk-screen Printing,
ART 243 Electronic Arts Etching, ART 242; and Creative Writing Courses.
Minor in Studio Art (Photography)
Students who may be interested in
photography but may not wish to be a studio major can explore
photography in the context of a Studio Minor. The minor consists of 21
credit hours of study of which 12 credit hours will be in photography.
The recommended courses are: ART 171, Photo I; ART 172, Photo II; ART
373 or ART 375, Color Photography or The View Camera; ART 476 or ART
490, Photo VI or Independent Study.