Undergraduate Overview

This basic class, required for entry into all other photo classes, introduces contemporary technologies for producing photographic images. This course also introduces seeing, thinking and creating with a critical mind and eye to provide greater understanding of the construction and manipulation of photographic form and meaning. Approaching the medium in its current complex and pluralistic state, students explore a variety of photographic concepts and techniques. While various physical cameras are still in use today the fundamentals of using digital cameras, including manual exposure and lighting are stressed. Eclectic forms of output are explored in order to discover methods of presentation most suited to a particular idea.

'Knowledge of photography is just as important as that of the alphabet. The illiterate of the future will be a person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as the pen.' Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946). This course will address the complex and continual shifting nature of photography; what influences our understanding of how a photograph functions while exploring a diverse array of photographic genres and applications.

Assignments will provide technical skills to use cameras, compose images and print digital photographs. Readings, screenings and discussions will provide a framework for critically analyzing the photographs we encounter every day, as well as our own photographs.

This basic class, required for entry into all other photo classes, introduces contemporary technologies for producing photographic images. This course also introduces seeing, thinking and creating with a critical mind and eye to provide greater understanding of the construction and manipulation of photographic form and meaning. Approaching the medium in its current complex and pluralistic state, students explore a variety of photographic concepts and techniques. While various physical cameras are still in use today the fundamentals of using digital cameras, including manual exposure and lighting are stressed. Eclectic forms of output are explored in order to discover methods of presentation most suited to a particular idea.

'Knowledge of photography is just as important as that of the alphabet. The illiterate of the future will be a person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as the pen.' Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946). This course will address the complex and continual shifting nature of photography; what influences our understanding of how a photograph functions while exploring a diverse array of photographic genres and applications.

Assignments will provide technical skills to use cameras, compose images and print digital photographs. Readings, screenings and discussions will provide a framework for critically analyzing the photographs we encounter every day, as well as our own photographs.

This basic class, required for entry into all other photo classes, introduces contemporary technologies for producing photographic images. This course also introduces seeing, thinking and creating with a critical mind and eye to provide greater understanding of the construction and manipulation of photographic form and meaning. Approaching the medium in its current complex and pluralistic state, students explore a variety of photographic concepts and techniques. While various physical cameras are still in use today the fundamentals of using digital cameras, including manual exposure and lighting are stressed. Eclectic forms of output are explored in order to discover methods of presentation most suited to a particular idea.

'Knowledge of photography is just as important as that of the alphabet. The illiterate of the future will be a person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as the pen.' Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946). This course will address the complex and continual shifting nature of photography; what influences our understanding of how a photograph functions while exploring a diverse array of photographic genres and applications.

Assignments will provide technical skills to use cameras, compose images and print digital photographs. Readings, screenings and discussions will provide a framework for critically analyzing the photographs we encounter every day, as well as our own photographs.

This basic class, required for entry into all other photo classes, introduces contemporary technologies for producing photographic images. This course also introduces seeing, thinking and creating with a critical mind and eye to provide greater understanding of the construction and manipulation of photographic form and meaning. Approaching the medium in its current complex and pluralistic state, students explore a variety of photographic concepts and techniques. While various physical cameras are still in use today the fundamentals of using digital cameras, including manual exposure and lighting are stressed. Eclectic forms of output are explored in order to discover methods of presentation most suited to a particular idea.

'Knowledge of photography is just as important as that of the alphabet. The illiterate of the future will be a person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as the pen.' Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946). This course will address the complex and continual shifting nature of photography; what influences our understanding of how a photograph functions while exploring a diverse array of photographic genres and applications.

Assignments will provide technical skills to use cameras, compose images and print digital photographs. Readings, screenings and discussions will provide a framework for critically analyzing the photographs we encounter every day, as well as our own photographs.

This basic class, required for entry into all other photo classes, introduces contemporary technologies for producing photographic images. This course also introduces seeing, thinking and creating with a critical mind and eye to provide greater understanding of the construction and manipulation of photographic form and meaning. Approaching the medium in its current complex and pluralistic state, students explore a variety of photographic concepts and techniques. While various physical cameras are still in use today the fundamentals of using digital cameras, including manual exposure and lighting are stressed. Eclectic forms of output are explored in order to discover methods of presentation most suited to a particular idea.

'Knowledge of photography is just as important as that of the alphabet. The illiterate of the future will be a person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as the pen.' Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946). This course will address the complex and continual shifting nature of photography; what influences our understanding of how a photograph functions while exploring a diverse array of photographic genres and applications.

Assignments will provide technical skills to use cameras, compose images and print digital photographs. Readings, screenings and discussions will provide a framework for critically analyzing the photographs we encounter every day, as well as our own photographs.

This basic class, required for entry into all other photo classes, introduces contemporary technologies for producing photographic images. This course also introduces seeing, thinking and creating with a critical mind and eye to provide greater understanding of the construction and manipulation of photographic form and meaning. Approaching the medium in its current complex and pluralistic state, students explore a variety of photographic concepts and techniques. While various physical cameras are still in use today the fundamentals of using digital cameras, including manual exposure and lighting are stressed. Eclectic forms of output are explored in order to discover methods of presentation most suited to a particular idea.

'Knowledge of photography is just as important as that of the alphabet. The illiterate of the future will be a person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as the pen.' Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946). This course will address the complex and continual shifting nature of photography; what influences our understanding of how a photograph functions while exploring a diverse array of photographic genres and applications.

Assignments will provide technical skills to use cameras, compose images and print digital photographs. Readings, screenings and discussions will provide a framework for critically analyzing the photographs we encounter every day, as well as our own photographs.

This course is designed for students who have a basic knowledge of photography and its materials and an interest in the use of the photo image as part of a broad vocabulary of image-making processes. Students explore cyanotype, van dyke brown, gum bichromate printing, collage, reproduction, and transfer techniques, and are given a basic working knowledge of the graphic arts films and print films. Also covered: Polaroid materials, copy machines, computer graphics, and applied color. Ideas related to text, installation, and performance may also be explored. Each student is encouraged to experiment in both silver and non-silver processes and to conduct research independently.

This course will explore the methods, history and potential of medium format film photography. Students will learn to use a wide variety of medium format cameras including the Mamiya 7, Mamiya RZ 67, Mamiya 645, Pentax 67, Holga and various Hasselblad systems. Using a wide variety of black and white and color medium format films, students will become familiar with several film development techniques, and both analog and digital printing methods to create traditional and experimental photographic work.

Color Concepts introduces complex ideas and processes associated with the various applications of color in photography. Emphasis is on conceptual, theoretical, cultural, and perceptual aspects of color related to both vision and photographic image-making. The class explores all aspects of color photography. It traces the roots of analog three-color photographic processes first theorized in 1855, less than 30 years after the advent of black and white photography, and explores the successes and the limitations of color film (for example, the racial bias of color film.) Lastly, the class examines contemporary color dominant popularity amongst artists since the 1970s, through the context of a color constructed digital future.

Through a variety of exercises and assignments students will develop a keen eye to seeing color in the world and on the screen, use peer discussion and collaboration to advance critique skills, and build aptitude for visual literacy. Technical skills learned, include image capture, color correction, qualities of light, color corrected printing on varying scales and media, digital camera and medium format film camera authorizations, strategies of presentation while expanding on digital skills introduced in PHOTO 1001.

This course introduces black-and-white printing techniques including darkroom and inkjet printing, contrast control through development, the zone system, scale of images, graphic arts film, studio lighting, different darkroom techniques, alternative cameras, and different papers and films.

This course introduces black-and-white printing techniques including darkroom and inkjet printing, contrast control through development, the zone system, scale of images, graphic arts film, studio lighting, different darkroom techniques, alternative cameras, and different papers and films.

Students are introduced to using light as a means for creative control. By studying the light around us, we are able to better serve our work through specific choices with regard to existing or ambient light and light augmented by other sources of illumination. Students learn the rudiments of metering, mixing light sources, including the use of on-camera or hand-held electronic flash within existing lighting conditions. This is a practical course that enables students to better control and use light and lighting in their work.

Students are introduced to using light as a means for creative control. By studying the light around us, we are able to better serve our work through specific choices with regard to existing or ambient light and light augmented by other sources of illumination. Students learn the rudiments of metering, mixing light sources, including the use of on-camera or hand-held electronic flash within existing lighting conditions. This is a practical course that enables students to better control and use light and lighting in their work.

This 3 hour reading and discussion class is designed to familiarize students with historical and contemporary philosophy, critical analysis, and contemporary thought relevant to photography and the visual culture. The course's aim is to prepare students for a higher level of discourse in anticipation of either graduate school or life as an artist in the greater realm of the ?art world.? Discussions of contemporary work in this atmosphere are aimed at making clear the connection between theory, research and an artist's practice. Students are expected to do critical readings (generally one essay per week), complete short, informal writing assignments, participate in class discussion, and to engage in theoretical research as part of their own practice.

What are the concerns that drive one's creative practice? How does one set the terms for its future development? Sophomore Seminar offers strategies for students to explore, reflect upon, and connect common themes and interests in the development of an emerging creative practice that will serve as the basis of their ongoing studies at SAIC and beyond. Students will examine historical and contemporary influences and contextualize their work in relation to the diverse art-worlds of the 21st Century. Readings, screenings, and field trips will vary each semester. Presentations by visiting artists and guest speakers will provide the opportunity for students to hear unique perspectives on sustaining a creative practice. One-on-one meetings with faculty will provide students with individualized mentorship throughout the semester. During interdisciplinary critiques, students will explore a variety of formats and tools to analyze work and provide peer feedback. The class mid-term project asks students to imagine a plan for their creative life and devise a self-directed course of study for their time at school. The course concludes with an assignment asking students to develop and document a project or body of work demonstrating how the interplay of ideas, technical skills, and formal concerns evolve through iteration, experimentation and revision.

Prerequisite: Must be a sophomore to enroll.

Large Format Photography introduces students to the ideas and aesthetics associated with a large-format view camera. Students will learn pre-visualization, camera movements, perspective control, large-format optics, and how to handle large format sheet film. Assignments focus on portraiture, landscape, studio, and architecture. Students are encouraged to develop a personal style via flexible assignments. Technical skills acquired include view camera setup and control, experience with sheet film, the zone system, large format scanning, and analog and digital printing. All enrolled students are assigned a 4x5 studio camera and will have access to an 8x10 and 4x5 field cameras, along with a variety of optics and accessories.

A variety of technical readings from multiple sources will help students understand perspective control, camera setup, lens choice, bellows extension, available film choices, exposure, and reciprocity compensation associated with large format photography. Additional readings and screenings will provide examples of historical and contemporary work created utilizing large format photography, and highlight the cameras meditative qualities and excellent resolution and control.

Every idea has a medium most suited to its execution, but often not the one in which the artist is working. This class considers new ways of translating ideas into other media to develop a sense of possibilities beyond the straight photograph. Conceptual art has given us an understanding of the triggers that might provoke an investigation of layers of meaning within the simplest of ideas. Assignment encourage students to think beyond the usual way they work and include the use of collaboration, installation, audio, video, live feed, the internet, performance, and performative uses of photography.

Photographic information permeates our daily lives. PHOTO MATTER explores the materiality of photographic image-making by delving into the realms of appropriation, montage, and collage to strategies interwoven with the sculptural and installation. Through a dynamic combination of creative exploration and critical inquiry, students will craft a compelling body of work in their chosen form that resonates with their line of inquiry. Our course activities will revolve around the cultivation of individual artistic production, embrace the tangible nature of photographs while analyzing the works of influential artists, and noteworthy exhibitions. As artists and creators, we will experiment with innovative approaches to presentation methods, venturing into alternative spaces and exhibition making. By seamlessly fusing research, materials and techniques, we will create surface tensions and expand the capacities of photographic meanings.

Class objectives are to provide students with an opportunity to work through the process of concept development, pre-production, fashion Styling, hair & markup, set design, location scouting, studio & natural lighting techniques, digital post production, and how to capture the essence of the fashion theme through tested photography techniques. Garment silhouette, cut & construction, color, pattern and texture are key elements given consideration to clearly communicate the fashion design idea using the most up-to-date and effective photographic techniques. Editorial Photography themes are used in collaboration with Fashion students¿ garments and class photo shoots are used throughout the Fashion Department¿s annal award-winning ¿the Book¿ publication. Visits to professional fashion photographer studios, exhibition visits, and in-class lectures give students additional opportunities to discuss create and technical topics being used today in fashion photography. Application is required for consideration.

Class objectives are to provide students with an opportunity to work through the process of concept development, pre-production, fashion Styling, hair & markup, set design, location scouting, studio & natural lighting techniques, digital post production, and how to capture the essence of the fashion theme through tested photography techniques. Garment silhouette, cut & construction, color, pattern and texture are key elements given consideration to clearly communicate the fashion design idea using the most up-to-date and effective photographic techniques. Editorial Photography themes are used in collaboration with Fashion students¿ garments and class photo shoots are used throughout the Fashion Department¿s annal award-winning ¿the Book¿ publication. Visits to professional fashion photographer studios, exhibition visits, and in-class lectures give students additional opportunities to discuss create and technical topics being used today in fashion photography. Application is required for consideration.

This course examines the relationships between photography and place, with a focus on post-traumatic sites and their visual representations. We will explore how we perceive and represent space ¿ also, how we read and sense an existing physical place. We will consider the possibilities and limitations of a photosensitive record of a place: a passage from the experience of a place to a visual representation of that experience. Relation between memory, place and time; memory image of a place; tracing the Invisible. Texts, films and videos will focus on specific sites: places of myth and history marked by memory and trauma. Nuclear sites and radioactive landscapes. Camera Atomica: nuclear sublime.Geography of Shoah: concentration camps and post- Holocaust spaces. (Post)memory and hidden presence of the past. Discourse of the Unrepresentable. Based on strong theoretical and visual research, this course emphasizes a research-based art practice. The studio component encourages students to experiment and develop skills in a variety of mediums, resulting in visual and theoretical research presentations, followed by the realization of two independent long-term projects throughout the course of the semester.

This course introduces students to self-portraiture and complex intersections of race, representation, and identity in contemporary photography. Students will be analyzing the impact of historical visual narratives on contemporary perspectives while developing critical skills to deconstruct visual representations, specifically examining how different media constructs, and portrays race and identity, through a stereotypical, myopic lens. Students will be introduced to artists from all over the world, particularly photographers from marginalized communities who challenge stereotypes and amplify underrepresented voices.

Advanced Post-Production and Fine Arts Printing refines and expands the digital imaging skills learned in previous classes. Emphasis is placed on all stages of production that occur after image acquisition and streamlining digital workflow and mastering advanced editing skills in preparation for creating exhibition-quality prints. Workflow techniques include advanced image correction, color management, and advanced masking methods. Photo manipulation approaches focus on using Photoshop and other photo editing software addons and programs as creative tools for exploring the conceptual applications of retouching, image compositing, color grading, and other post-production methodologies.

This course utilizes a variety of technical assignments designed to build and reinforce digital skill-building. Students will progress through the technical material via structured assignments and the completion of self-conceived creative projects. Readings and discussions address contemporary theoretical issues surrounding digital imaging and the constant shift and development of new capabilities associated with digital output technologies. Since the toolsets related to color science, photographic manipulation and digital asset management software are in constant flux, assignments will also incorporate research methodologies and problem-solving specific to students? workflow and output needs. Students will gain new perspectives on current toolsets, and the skill to evaluate and stay current as toolsets associated with post-production continue to evolve.

Photography is everywhere. Sequences and series are the ubiquitous ways we most often see photographic images. Photographic meanings are pliable in shifting contexts from published sequences online and in print, to images in photobooks, exhibitions and installations. This class critically examines how series of images are structured and the significance those structures hold.

?That photography resists being shaped by any single set of imperatives or standards ? as it literally permeates our public and private and our rational and fantasy lives ? renders it, by its very nature unruly and hard to define.? Marvin Heiferman. This course will address the complex and continual shifting nature of photography; what influences our understanding of how a photograph functions while exploring a diverse array of photographic genres and applications.

Assignments develop skillful use and understanding of serial imagery by engaging narrative and non-narrative strategies in a variety of sequences, books, zines, portfolios, web-based projects, installations, videos, and projected presentations.

Exploratory Media examines the fluidity and connection between various forms of media. The course builds on the history of Conceptualism, an artistic practice born in the 1960s that prioritized the idea, allowing the medium to follow as well as the highly influential theory of the medium itself being meaning and message. This course will highlight the history of artists who worked with a wandering ¿nomadic¿ mindset due to access to new technologies such as video art collectives of the 1970¿s as well as photographers who work within a non-traditional lens based practice. This laboratory-like course encourages students to experiment and iterate: In this course students are asked to consider their artistic intentions through different kinds of media like performance, sculpture, sound, while also focusing on different outputs for lens based work such as alternative photographic substrates, performance, installation. The course structure relies on assignment-based projects, frequent hands-on studio experimentations, peer-to-peer feedback, and looking at other artists' work in a variety of mediums. Intermittent readings, lectures, and screenings provide a conceptual framework for this work.

Capturing Time is an online course that allows students to explore the close connections, similarities, and differences historically associated with cinematic and photographic images. The reading, screening, and research component of the class will delve into the specific historical, theoretical, and artistic practices, as well as a technique associated with still and moving images. The studio component is designed to ignite your creativity, encouraging you to experiment, develop skills in diverse mediums, and attempt to challenge the historically separated boundaries of moving and still imagery through class readings and screenings, a research presentation, and a final project. Course assignments will include readings from cinematic and photographic historians, theorists, and contemporary artists. Class readings will include essays by Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Tom Gunning, Rosalind Krauss, and Rebecca Solnit. In addition to the weekly class readings, class screenings and presentations are assigned each week to supplement and support the texts. They will include cinema, photography, and multimedia installations from Chantal Akerman, Jim Campbell, John Cage, Maya Deren, Omer Fast, Hollis Frampton, Mona Hatum, the Lumiere Brothers, Christian Marclay, Man Ray, Chris Marker, Steve McQueen, Dwayne Michaels, Tsai Ming-Liang, Eadweard Muybridge, Tony Oursler, Pipilotti Rist, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Andrei Tarkovsky, Bill Viola, Andy Warhol, Gillian Wearing and more. The online course structure will provide three tiers of interaction: student to instructor, student to student, and student to content. The primary focus of the class relies on weekly assignment-based projects, peer-to-peer feedback, and self-paced visual material that will provide examples of photographic, cinematic, and interdisciplinary artists working with digital Media in various modes of production and presentation. Historical and contemporary readings and screenings provide a conceptual framework for the course work, including weekly reading responses in an online journal, short visual exercises, a research presentation on a specific artist, and a final project. Students are expected to produce substantial photographic and moving image work. *To complete this online course, a successful student will need access to a computer, an internet connection fast enough for streaming moving image material, and a camera capable of producing still and moving images (anything between a DSLR or Mirrorless camera and a mobile phone.)

This interdisciplinary studio symposium course introduces students to key principles and practices of surrealism with particular focus on theories of photography and strategies of photographic image-making. Treating surrealism not only as an art-historical moment but a living body of attitudes, theories, and possibilities for thinking, art-making, and action, students will develop their own ideas and a body of work in formulating a surrealist praxis. Students will read texts by and about surrealists/surrealism, querying into the poetics, politics, and possibilities of photographic surrealism. The class will treat ideas including: erotic desire, pleasure, gender, chance, dreams/unconscious, walking, play/games, politics, race, anticolonial thought, freedom.

Students will study work by surrealist thinkers including Andre Breton, Louis Aragon, Aime Cesaire, Georges Bataille, Maya Deren, and Claude Cahun; modern surrealist potes including Juliana Huxtable and Billy-Ray Belcourt; and contemporary theorists such as Rosalind Kruass, Susan Laxton, Angela Carter, and Tina Campt. Artists of special focus will include: Hans Bellmer, Claude Cahun, Lee Miller, Dora Maar, Man Ray, Jacques-Andre Boiffard, Pierre Molinier, Maya Deren, John Akomfrah, and Aruther Jafa. Students will also engage contemporary Afrosurrealism based in photography and film, e.g. Beyonce's ?Lemonade,' Donald Glover's ?Atlanta,' Boots Riley's 'Sorry to Bother You,' and Jordan Peele's ?Get Out.?

Students write two short analytic essays and a cumlinating research essay synthesizing ideas from across the semester. Students will also engage in generative photographic exercises designed to break habitual attitudes toward seeing and staging, as they build a focused body of personal work. Research, writing, and studio practice unfold in conjunction with one another, providing students with a working model for synthesizing art history and theory, political engagement, and making.

This interdisciplinary studio symposium course introduces students to key principles and practices of surrealism with particular focus on theories of photography and strategies of photographic image-making. Treating surrealism not only as an art-historical moment but a living body of attitudes, theories, and possibilities for thinking, art-making, and action, students will develop their own ideas and a body of work in formulating a surrealist praxis. Students will read texts by and about surrealists/surrealism, querying into the poetics, politics, and possibilities of photographic surrealism. The class will treat ideas including: erotic desire, pleasure, gender, chance, dreams/unconscious, walking, play/games, politics, race, anticolonial thought, freedom.

Students will study work by surrealist thinkers including Andre Breton, Louis Aragon, Aime Cesaire, Georges Bataille, Maya Deren, and Claude Cahun; modern surrealist potes including Juliana Huxtable and Billy-Ray Belcourt; and contemporary theorists such as Rosalind Kruass, Susan Laxton, Angela Carter, and Tina Campt. Artists of special focus will include: Hans Bellmer, Claude Cahun, Lee Miller, Dora Maar, Man Ray, Jacques-Andre Boiffard, Pierre Molinier, Maya Deren, John Akomfrah, and Aruther Jafa. Students will also engage contemporary Afrosurrealism based in photography and film, e.g. Beyonce's ?Lemonade,' Donald Glover's ?Atlanta,' Boots Riley's 'Sorry to Bother You,' and Jordan Peele's ?Get Out.?

Students write two short analytic essays and a cumlinating research essay synthesizing ideas from across the semester. Students will also engage in generative photographic exercises designed to break habitual attitudes toward seeing and staging, as they build a focused body of personal work. Research, writing, and studio practice unfold in conjunction with one another, providing students with a working model for synthesizing art history and theory, political engagement, and making.

This studio course refines and expands Black and White skills learned in previous classes. It is geared towards students, who seek to deepen a conceptualized approach to b/w photographic imagery for their work. It is covering a wide gamut of analogue and digital techniques, regarding b/w images as contemporary means of artistic expression and engagement with our world. The course is designed to allow a rigorous focus on individual narratives in an advanced production pace and surrounding. The amalgamation of conceptual inquiry and aesthetic outcome is the very center of this class, seeking to synthesize meaning and making on the backdrop of the historical ballast and beauty of this field.

This six-hour seminar is a professional practice class for life after graduation, focusing on how each student can build a sustainable practice based on their own strengths and working style. Students create a website, CVs, write grant proposals, artist statements, and statements of purpose, learning the different content and uses of each. Readings on contemporary artists and 'best practices' for editing, exhibition, and installation of artwork will support class work. This course embraces the understanding that developing a sustainable practice outside of school includes building creative community, developing an independent research practice and other activities related to each individual¿s work. As such, the highlight of this course will be bi-weekly visits and workshops from a diverse range of working artists, curators, residency staff and others to speak about these opportunities, as well as how to build a fruitful creative life. For example, we will develop strategies for talking about your work that fit your own personal style with a Chicago curator, and present grant materials to a mock panel to get productive feedback. The Junior Seminar is one of four required classes intended to function as a 'spine,' providing guidance and structure for SAIC's open and interdisciplinary curriculum.

Public Light and Space examines concepts and develops plans for art projects based on light, space and public interaction. The projects are conceptualized and planned in response to the opportunities afforded by specific locations around the city of Chicago. Particular attention is focused on elements such as digital light projection, controlled light sources, and light-responsive materials.

The course investigates concepts and understandings of public space and the history of art in these spaces. The class offers a critical examination of the active role played by light and its dynamics in selected art movements.

A series of technical workshops builds proficiency to lend support to the development of the final, publicly exhibited project. Visiting artists, critics and Chicagoans assist in refining the project ideas, as they are being chosen and developed.

This interdisciplinary capstone, with an emphasis on contemporary photography and visual culture, is structured as an intensive critique and mentoring class focused on the development and presentation of culminating work at the end of the BFA and the continued progression of studio work beyond the BFA exhibition. The course supports the production of self-initiated work, a successful BFA show and a road map for a sustainable art practice after graduation. Preparations for the BFA exhibition include workshopping project proposals, budgets, production schedules, the development of new work and an array of possible final presentation forms.

Readings, screenings and discussions will examine useful models of participation in cultural production and a critical framework for analyzing a range of platforms to share work online, in print and exhibition. Studio visits will provide insight into the day-to-day life of artists at various stages in their career ranging from current SAIC grad students to working professionals.

Online and printed portfolios utilizing an ever-evolving archive of work will be refined along with professional supporting materials such as statements, CVs and artist talks necessary for a professional practice beyond graduation.

Photographic Imaging Technical Seminar is a graduate-level class that provides students with an in-depth exploration of the technical and conceptual aspects of the photography department. Students will gain certification to use the equipment and facilities of the department while also learning about the department¿s acquisition, workflow, and photographic output capabilities. Examples drawn from contemporary art and current theoretical materials will be analyzed and discussed to enhance students' understanding of the subject matter. Additionally, students will present works in progress and begin producing new work at the outset of the semester. In addition to advanced certification in photographic equipment, the course allows students to develop their skills in individual project development while practicing and researching tools for production while focusing on developing students' familiarity with older, current, and developing technical processes. Students will also develop their ability to troubleshoot and resolve technical challenges encountered while producing finished work for critique.
In light of the simplified and automated photographic tools available today, students with diverse educational backgrounds are enrolling in SAIC's graduate program. This graduate-level technical seminar is designed for students with diverse technical backgrounds, including those with little traditional photographic experience. The course assumes that all students are proficient image makers and aims to level up their technical skills by providing a pathway to reinforce or introduce advanced photographic processes and control methodologies. Throughout the course, students will gain certifications and introductions to analog and digital cameras, darkroom techniques, facilities, studios, scanning, computing, and analog, digital, and alternative processes output facilities. To determine weekly exercises, the class will proactively survey students' technical needs and coordinate with the 5006 Photo Graduate Seminar. Additionally, students will work each week collaboratively to address technical issues and troubleshooting that arise during active image production. The technical exercises will help students build fluency and comprehension with various cameras, refine their personal workflow, and cover core lighting and advanced printing techniques. Technical lectures will build upon and reinforce these learned skills.
In light of the simplified and automated photographic tools available today, students with diverse educational backgrounds are enrolling in SAIC's graduate program. This graduate-level technical seminar is designed for students with diverse technical backgrounds, including those with little traditional photographic experience. The course assumes that all students are proficient image makers and aims to level up their technical skills by providing a pathway to reinforce or introduce advanced photographic processes and control methodologies. Throughout the course, students will gain certifications and introductions to analog and digital cameras, darkroom techniques, facilities, studios, scanning, computing, and analog, digital, and alternative processes output facilities. To determine weekly exercises, the class will proactively survey students' technical needs and coordinate with the 5006 Photo Graduate Seminar. Additionally, students will work each week collaboratively to address technical issues and troubleshooting that arise during active image production. The technical exercises will help students build fluency and comprehension with various cameras, refine their personal workflow, and cover core lighting and advanced printing techniques. Technical lectures will build upon and reinforce these learned skills.
Technical readings for the course may include:
Schewe, Jeff. The Digital Negative. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press, 2012
Davis, Phil. Beyond the Zone System. Boston: Focal Press, 1996.
Additional suggested readings might include:
Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. New York: Hill and Wang, 1981.
Solomon-Godeau, Abigail. Photography after Photography. New York: Duke University Press, 2017.
Fusco, Coco, and Brian Wallis (eds.). Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003.
Ritchin, Fred. 'Toward a Hyperphotography, After Photography.' Aperture, no. 124 (1991): 16-25.
These texts can provide students with further insight into photography's conceptual and historical aspects, and offer critical perspectives that can enrich their understanding of the medium.