MCAD’s photography major challenges you to consider photography as a way of knowing the world.
To this end, you become well-versed in the history, contemporary practices, and cultural impact of the medium. You are provided with a full range of technical skills that will serve you in both the applied and fine art fields. You are encouraged and expected to explore your ideas from a personal perspective and with rigor.
From your first compositions and critiques to real-world work experiences, through in-person and online classes, the BFA curriculum is a systematic process that transforms you from an MCAD student into a creative professional.
Year One: MCAD Community
- Develop your place in the MCAD community through classes, critiques, student activities, and more
- Explore your major options
- Take foundation classes
- Studio: technical skills and work ethic
- Liberal arts: art history and vocabulary
Year Two: Focusing Interests
- Declare photography as your major
- Build concentrated photography skills, both conceptual and technical
Year Three: The Community of Practice
- Take electives outside of photography courses
- Prepare for your transition from student to working professional
- Successfully complete your Junior Review
- Gain practical, real-world experience through a required internship
- Choose to study abroad or elsewhere in the U.S.
Year Four: The Professional World
- Deepen your investigation of and commitment to your body of work
- Participate in the Emerging Talent Showcase and share your work with potential employers
- Develop and complete a semester-long project to culminate in the Commencement Exhibition
Photography Major Outcomes
- Reference photographic history and theory, the relationship of photography to the visual disciplines, and the central position of photography in twenty-first-century visual culture.
- Demonstrate skills in the use of photographic tools, techniques, technologies, and processes sufficient to work from concept to finished work.
- Explain aesthetic and commercial applications of photographic techniques.
- Exhibit professional practices in terms of workflow and project management, including exhibition design, photobook production, and internet display.
Considering Transferring?
Learn if and how your credits might transfer to MCAD.
Foundation: 2D is an introduction to creative thinking that develops students’ skills in research, observation, interpretation, and self-expression. An emphasis is placed on exploring new ways to read and see the world, as well as new ways to report on it. Students learn basic two-dimensional principles through the use of various media, tools, materials, and processes. As a result, students develop a visual and verbal language for analyzing, organizing, shaping, and communicating two-dimensional form and meaning.
This course is an introduction to understanding of visual creation for the development of knowledge, imagination, and perception. Students are introduced to basic three-dimensional concepts as well as materials and technical production processes. Classroom activities include shop demonstrations of tools and techniques, information, lectures, and discussions appropriate to promote the balanced fusion of practice and theory.
Foundation: Drawing 1 is an introductory drawing course designed to prepare students for study in all majors of the college. Students develop basic drawing skills, including the ability to perceive and express visual relationships, organize a two-dimensional composition, and depict and manipulate form, space, and light. Students work from direct observation of still life, interior space, and landscape.
Students are introduced to digital resources at MCAD while exploring digital media. Areas covered include the Service Bureau, Gray Studio, and Media Center, along with other digital resources. Students use a variety of software and hardware to learn the basics of working with recorded media, including video, sound, and photography, as well as developing critical language for discussing media and media artists.
Building on the knowledge acquired in Foundation: Media 1, this course engages students’ skills in observation, recording, editing, critical analysis, and conceptualization within media arts. Through discussions, lectures, and creative projects, students explore various modes of media presentation and the power of moving images and multimedia work. Using digital technologies to deepen their media and technology foundation, students explore complex concepts and techniques for creating impactful work.
Prerequisites: Foundation: Media 1Everything we make has its beginning as an idea, which takes form as an artist/designer makes a series of decisions to guide its creative evolution. This course is designed to help students explore the development of new ideas and their own process of making. Students also create visual tools to track their creative process from idea through construction and then to post production analysis. The course consists of discussions, critiques, exercises, and visual logs.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standingPractice is more than working methods: it’s the context, marketing, and creative space that maintain creative work. Contemporary Practice introduces students to the foundations, variety, and tools of a professional practice. Students upgrade websites and documentation, enter contests, and create professional presentations of their work. Classes consist of lectures, student presentations, and guest speakers from a wide range of disciplines.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standingPhotography majors take 26 elective studio credits in any media they choose