Art Degrees Online

The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is committed to helping talented and motivated students pay for school. Each year, 75 to 80 percent of all SMFA students receive financial aid. Total aid awarded for the 2007–2008 year was $12,182,740, of which $5,160,206 was awarded directly from the School.

The School offers both need-based and merit-based aid. Merit scholarships are awarded on the strength of a student’s portfolio and potential for growth as an artist in the Museum School community. All students are reviewed for merit scholarship if they meet the admissions deadline. Merit scholarships range from $3,000 to full tuition and are renewed annually while a student is enrolled at the Museum School.

Photography courses present a full range of conceptual, critical, and technical approaches to contemporary photographic practice while supporting your individual interests and methodology.

The Photography area has a visiting artist program, which brings renowned artists to campus for lectures, interactive sessions with students, slide lectures, and workshops.

Our comprehensive facilities include beginning and advanced black-and-white darkrooms, color darkrooms, digital photography, alternative processes (nonsilver), and many types and formats of cameras and lighting. For a complete list of equipment and facilities, see Media Stockroom.

Previous Course Offerings
Below are previous course offerings for the Photography area. Students must visit mySMFA to see current offerings and register.

Students in the undergraduate, graduate, Studio, and Post-Baccalaureate certificate programs may also take Continuing Education courses for credit.

The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is committed to helping talented and motivated students pay for school. Each year, 75 to 80 percent of all SMFA students receive financial aid. Total aid awarded for the 2007–2008 year was $12,182,740, of which $5,160,206 was awarded directly from the School.

The School offers both need-based and merit-based aid. Merit scholarships are awarded on the strength of a student’s portfolio and potential for growth as an artist in the Museum School community. All students are reviewed for merit scholarship if they meet the admissions deadline. Merit scholarships range from $3,000 to full tuition and are renewed annually while a student is enrolled at the Museum School.

After gaining an understanding of the history of photography and the body of criticism surrounding it, students are encouraged to explore new techniques and develop their own vision.

The photography program provides a strong technical and aesthetic foundation in black-and-white and color photography, and in analog and digital imaging. Coursework focuses on the use of various kinds of equipment, ranging from view cameras to Polaroids; digital photography techniques; and printing techniques including alternative printmaking, fine black- and-white printing, palladium printing, toning, multiple image-making, and collage.

Facilities include 11,000 square feet of work stations, darkrooms with full ventilation, and galleries. New printing facilities accommodate mural-size prints and nonsilver processes as well as color or monochrome processes.

The photography program recently has welcomed visiting artists James Casebere, Lois Conner, Linda Connor, Joan Fontecuberta, Peter Garfield, Ed Grazda, Vik Muniz, Rebecca Solnit, and Kim Yasuda.

The A-4 Photography Gallery features changing exhibitions of work by outside artists, and internships are available with the Museum of Fine Arts, the Polaroid Corporation, and various commercial photographers.

The Major and Minor programs in Photography acknowledges photography as a discipline with a distinct artistic and historical identity. It also recognizes that contemporary photographic practice encompasses a rich multiplicity of formal and conceptual approaches. The course structure of the program and the orientation of its faculty reflect a concern that the student receives a strong historical and theoretical understanding of the medium. The program stresses the need for students to acquire the concepts and vocabulary necessary for critical discussion of photographic work; their own and that of others. Emphasis is placed on photography’s social, as well as artistic, ramifications. Both a Major and a Minor program are offered.

The Department of Studio Arts offers programs that emphasize the importance of practical work with practicing artists. Through a series of courses in ceramics, drawing, fibres, intermedia/cyberarts, painting, photography, print media, and sculpture, students increase their awareness of what constitutes creativity and understanding of the aesthetic and intellectual aspects of art today.
Curriculum

Major in Photography — 60 credits
Minor in Photography — 30 credits

Courses may include:
Foundations in Photographic Vision: Theory and Practice I, II
Black and White Photography
Digital Photography
Introduction to Contemporary Issues in Photography
Development of Photographic Traditions

See the BFA degree description for more information on general degree requirements. For a complete list of courses: Undergraduate Calendar
Facilities

The Photography program is located in the Engineering and Computer Science and Visual Arts Complex. The building, conveniently located in the centre of downtown, provides immediate access to the city, Concordia’s Webster Library, the Museum of Fine Arts and many other cultural and commercial venues.

The photographic facilities include: hi‑end computers, a drum scanner, two virtual drum scanners plus negative and flatbed scanners, 44” inkjet printers and other printers including a quad tone printer, 20 colour enlargers, a colour darkroom with 30” and 40” colour processors and print viewing area, 19 black and white 17 enlargers, a large print darkroom and finishing area, and two studios. The facilities also have portable photographic equipment: cameras including digital 4 × 5 and 6 × 7, and accessories including electronic flash kits, soft boxes, tripods, light metres and other items.

Students in the photography program have access to the Centre for Digital Arts (CDA). The darkrooms and digital areas are accessible Monday to Friday until 10:00 p.m. and Saturday until 9 p.m. Students should have their own 35mm camera for basic courses.