Spring 2025 Lecture Series
Subscribe to Our Photography Lecture Series Mailing List to Receive Info and Links for Upcoming Lectures
Learn morePhotography Faculty & Department Administrators
Nicholas Ortoleva, '24 BFA, Photography
Brighton, Digital photograph, 2023
All MassArt news
Student Prize 2024: Top 25 To Watch
- MassArt in the Media
- Graduate Programs
- Photography
Massachusetts College of Art and Design MFA Photography students Natalie Brescia, Jacob Church, and Andrew Zou are featured in 25 students to watch by Lenscratch.
Share
All MassArt news
A ‘Meadow’ in the Fenway and a ‘Glacier’ in Kenmore Square
- Faculty in the News
- MassArt in the Media
- Photography
Professor emerita Barbara Bosworth’s exhibit, “The Meadow,” is now on display at the MFA. It contains only 17 photographs of a meadow in Carlisle, Massachusetts, that she shot over a number of years. But “that might be just as well,” says The Boston Globe. “The photographs are so beautiful in their understated way that any more than that might seem overwhelming.”
Share
All MassArt news
Sharing Personal And Family Stories Through Photography
- Alumni in the News
- Graduate Programs
- Photography
Alumni, Artist and photographer Yana Nosenko and Claudio Eshun, talk about their self-portraiture work in their recent MassArt x Sowa exibition.
The MassArt x SoWa gallery show featured Yana Nosenko’s daily self-portraits, which document her experiences since moving from Russia to the U.S., beginning on the day Russia invaded Ukraine. Fellow MassArt alumnus Claudio Eshun also showcased a family portrait of his relatives in traditional Ghanaian kente cloth, taken in their Worcester home.
Share
MassArt’s Photography facilities provide students with extensive resources and equipment necessary for both digital and traditional analog photography processes.
MassArt’s extensive Photography facilities – 11,000 square feet of darkrooms, digital labs, and an equipment cage – are all located on the 6th floor of the Kennedy building. The facilities include three digital labs equipped with computers, industry-standard software, digital scanners, and professional-grade printers. In addition, MassArt provides two large communal darkrooms with 30 enlarger stations for analog photography processes, individual darkrooms, and a non-silver darkroom.
Labs and Darkrooms are open to all enrolled in a MassArt Photography class, though space access is limited to where your class is held. If you have previously taken courses in the Photo Department and are enrolled in classes at MassArt and wish to use the labs, please contact the studio managers about paying a lab fee.
Photo Cage
Both the Cage and Digital Labs open approximately 1 week after classes begin and close the last day of undergraduate reviews. Schedule adjusts for holidays and class breaks, please check the Academic Calendar for exact dates.
DARKROOM HOURS
Resources in the Photo Cage are open to current Photo students only (Photo majors and in-session non-major photo class students).
Monday – Thursday: 10am – 10pm (Cage closes at 9:30pm)
Friday: 10am – 6pm (Cage closes at 5:30pm)
Saturday/Sunday: 12pm – 6pm (Cage closes at 5:30pm)
DIGITAL LAB HOURS
Resources in the Photo Digital Lab are for current Junior/Senior Photography majors or students enrolled in a Digital Photography for Non-Majors course only.
Monday-Thursday: 10am – 10pm
Friday: 10am – 6pm
Saturday: 12pm – 6pm
Sunday: 12pm – 10pm
All labs will be closed for our department Visiting Artist Lectures. Please check the MassArt Events Calendar for upcoming dates of our Photography Lecture Series.
- Analog black and white developing and printing areas
- – Digital imaging and printing
- – Alternative (non-silver) processes area with UV exposure unit and coating station
- – Negatives up to 8″ x 10″ can be accommodated in all areas
- 2 black and white gang darkrooms (1 beginner and 1 advanced)
- 2 film-processing areas
- 1 sheet film processing room
- 3 private darkrooms
- Medium format, 4×5 and 8 x 10 cameras for students to borrow
- 30 imaging workstations
- Epson V750 and V850 flatbed scanners
- 3 Hasselblad Flextight X1 film scanners
- Epson inkjet printing stations in our print rooms
- Color correct viewing booth and lighting
- Magnetic pin-up boards
- Mirrorless and SLR digital cameras for students to borrow
Check out what we’re making
Our Photography Lecture Series brings accomplished artists, historians, critics and curators to campus to spark new ideas and inspire dynamic conversations.
Our celebrated Photography Lecture Series brings accomplished speakers – artists, historians, critics, and curators from diverse backgrounds and geographic locations – to the college every semester. These are leading practitioners in the medium who inspire dynamic conversations and new ideas in our department and in the broader public.
Past Lecture Series
Matthew Connors
Professor, Photography
Jason Christopher Higgins
Photo Lab Monitor, PhotographyNatalie Ivis
Assistant Professor, Photography
Derin Korman
Visiting Lecturer, PhotographyBillie Mandle
Chair, Photography
Laura McPhee
Graduate Program Director, Photography
Matthew Monteith
Professor, Photography
Scott Offen
Special Graduate Alumni Assistant in Photography, PhotographyGalen Palmer
Studio Manager, PhotographyStephen Tourlentes
Visiting Lecturer, Photography
Amani Willett
Associate Professor, Photography
MassArt’s intensive Post-Baccalaureate Certificate Program in Photography is a full-time, one-year course of study for aspiring photographers.
MassArt’s intensive Post-Baccalaureate Certificate Program in Photography is a full-time, one-year course for individuals seeking an advanced level of discourse, both technical and theoretical, about photography as contemporary practice. The program provides an individualized curriculum for students who want to develop their portfolios and their skills to prepare for future graduate school, or as an end in itself. It provides an opportunity for students of diverse ages and academic backgrounds to explore the medium in a concentrated manner.
Students enroll in 24-27 credits in courses approved by the Program Coordinator. A typical schedule is as follows:
| Semester 1 | 15 | Semester 2 | 12 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photography Post-bac Major Studio | 6 | Photography Post-bac Major Studio | 6 | ||
| Photography Elective | 3 | Photography Elective | 3 | ||
| MPPH 512 GRAD TECH SEMINAR | 3 | Photography Elective | 3 | ||
| History of Art | 3 |
Postbac Learning Outcomes
Students who complete the Photography Postbac Program are expected to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes.
- Experiment with formal and conceptual invention as you develop a coherent body of work of depth and integrity on a personally chosen topic which may or may not extend over the two year program
- Refine technical expertise in photography and acquire new skills in other media
- Bridge the visual language of photography with the written word and public speaking
- Understand one’s work in relation to contemporary art and art history by incorporating scholarly research, critical theory and analysis, and an awareness of historical and contemporary practices.
- Develop the ability to critique peers’ work across disciplines to speak thoughtfully about the work of others
- Develop awareness and understanding of the diverse cultural, historical, and experiential issues expressed and inherent in one’s own artwork and in that of one’s peers
- Exhibit one’s work in a professional manner in the thesis exhibition. Students may also participate in other exhibitions and curatorial opportunities at the college.
- Understand a range of professional pathways for careers in the arts.
- Collaborate with artists in other disciplines
Program Director
Laura McPhee
Graduate Program Director, Photography
Ready to take the next Step?
MassArt’s MFA in Photography offers students an environment for conversation and experimentation as they strive to produce work of significance.
MassArt’s MFA in Photography advances the medium as a means of critical expression. Students create within and without the boundaries of lens based images, bookmaking, contemporary criticism, and the history of photography. Over the course of the program’s 30-year history, we have cultivated an intellectual environment in which graduate students refine technique and arrive at new meanings. Students have access to extensive analog and digital photography facilities, and are encouraged to explore intersections with various disciplines throughout MassArt and neighboring universities.
Zhidong Zhang, MFA ’20, Photography
Boy with Rooster, Photograph, 2019
Kelly Burgess, MFA ’18, Photography
Omaha, Photograph, 2017
Claudio Eshun, MFA ’21, Photography
Unc.lue & Nana, Photograph, 2021
The welcoming atmosphere of the department, in combination with its first-rate facilities, provides an environment where students converse and experiment as they strive to produce work of significance. The new MassArt Scholarship for Graduate Study in Photography provides significant support to admitted MFA students, expanding access to our prestigious program.
Through studio visits and roundtable discussions, graduate students have direct access to the prominent artists, curators, scholars, and critics who participate in our celebrated Photography Lecture Series. Renowned guest critics also provide feedback to MFA candidates during in-progress critiques and end-of-semester reviews.
MFA students in the Photography program who successfully complete the graduate elective, College Teaching in Art and Design, may co-teach one or more studio courses with a fellow MFA candidate during their second year in the program.
Each year, one recent Photography MFA graduate is awarded our Post Graduate Teaching Fellowship to hone their teaching skills and continue their art practice at MassArt for one year.
MFA Learning Outcomes
Students who complete the Photography MFA Program are expected to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes.
- Experiment with formal and conceptual invention as you develop a coherent body of work of depth and integrity on a personally chosen topic, which may or may not extend over the two year program.
- Refine technical expertise in photography and acquire new skills in other media.
- Bridge the visual language of photography with the written word and public speaking.
- Understand one’s work in relation to contemporary art and art history by incorporating scholarly research, critical theory and analysis, and an awareness of historical and contemporary practices.
- Develop the ability to critique peers’ work across disciplines to speak thoughtfully about the work of others.
- Develop awareness and understanding of the diverse cultural, historical, and experiential issues expressed and inherent in one’s own artwork, and in that of one’s peers.
- Exhibit one’s work in a professional manner in the thesis exhibition. Students may also participate in other exhibitions and curatorial opportunities at the college.
- Understand a range of professional pathways for careers in the arts.
- Collaborate with artists in other disciplines.
Graduate Program Director
Laura McPhee
Graduate Program Director, Photography
Faculty
Matthew Monteith
Professor, Photography
Matthew Connors
Professor, Photography
Billie Mandle
Chair, Photography
Amani Willett
Associate Professor, Photography
Ready To Take the Next Step?
Information for