Photography

FAQs

• What are some of the career paths for someone who majors in Photography?

  Students have gone onto Graduate school, or have become an Exhibiting Fine Art Commercial Photographer, Curator, Editorial Picture Editor, or Film Maker.

• How do you prepare your students for the real world?

  We critique students with blunt honesty. The school has embedded in the curriculum opportunities to apply for shows, take commercial photography courses, and create professional web sites. Every class prepares them for the “real world.”

• What are some examples of what your alums are doing?

  We have two alums finishing thesis work at Columbia College and Mass Art this year. We have had students attend Yale as well. We have an alum operating a successful portrait and wedding business in the Caribbean Islands. We have had alum show at the Museum of Modern Art. Many students work in commercial studios or other art/media based businesses. Often students start their own professional studios. We have a student teaching art therapy at a Psychiatric hospital in New Jersey.

• What are the prerequisites to major in Photography?

  Introduction to Photography PH101 and Intermediate Photography PH102.

• What unique skills do your students get?

  Students taking photography classes at Maine College of Art & Design gain skills to develop, edit, and sequence a self-directed body of work and articulate their ideas within both a historical and contemporary context. Students bridge lessons learned in foundation level classes and apply how they can be used with any camera frame. From 3D-design they harvest the knowledge of how light, surface, and form create spatial relations. The culmination of these processes fosters a solid photographic proficiency and literacy that enables students to have many options available to problem solve formal and conceptual concerns, to express their ideas, emotions, and beliefs.

• Will I be able to incorporate other media or interests with my work as a Photography major?

  Yes— students in the past have incorporated filmmaking, design, printmaking, sculpture, performance, digital media, and audio.

• What are your facilities like?

  We have "wet darkrooms" for printing from film which include enlargers for 35mm, medium and large format negatives, as well as equipment for mural printing. In addition to our two group darkrooms (one for beginners and one for advanced users), we also have an individual darkroom. For camera equipment, there is an assortment of Digital SLRs, 35mm, and medium and large format cameras; all are available for checkout to students enrolled in Photography classes. Our digital output lab includes a range of large format Epson printers, 27" iMacs, and both drum and flatbed scanners.

• What are some examples of internships your students have done in the past?

  Russell French Photography, Macomber Inc., The Bakery Photographic Collective, and Discovery Channel.

• How many students (juniors and seniors) do you typically have in your major?

  Students in the major typically range from 12-20.