THE EXPERIENCE:
The room seems empty until your eyes adjust, totally dark with the exception of one overhead glowing softbox and a shiny gold reflecting card. In the middle of the room is a huge camera placed on a tripod. This camera seems to belong in the 1900's, with a large bellows and a black hood. Upon closer inspection, the subject matter, a large conch shell, is upside-down in this large format camera. The photography student returns, carrying several small black containers used to carry sheets of film. Using the Zone System, the student checks several light meter settings to assure that the highlights and shadows will be properly captured. Draping the hood over her head, she makes minute adjustments using a lupe to assure the imagine will be as sharp as possible, and any distortion corrected. She closes the lens, makes sure the aperture is properly set, and slides a black container where the image was just a moment ago, and presses a plunger. At the moment the image is captured, a blast of light fills the room for just a moment. The sharpness and clarity of the image made from this camera will exceed all expectations, and will be printed on 20" x 24" paper.

In a brand new digital computer lab, one of three, several students are working. One is carefully color-correcting an image, magnifying the image by 100%, looking at individual pixels and cleaning up any unwanted blemishes and digital noise; another is layering several images into a photo collage; a third is printing a series of related abstract images in brilliant color.

Another student is pushing the envelope of what can be considered photography. Large scale, 4" deep boxes are filled with a combination of digitally printed and manipulated photographs, writing and the physical objects themselves.

We are immersed in a visual and word-based culture, and have grown up surrounded by the written word and disposable cameras. And in the sense that just writing does not make one a poet, just taking pictures does not make one a photographer.

The difference is vision.

You are well aware that photography is never as simple as "point and click". And while technical advancements in the medium are leaping forward as we speak, they cannot help with the "eye" of the photographer. A camera cannot compose, light a scene, or find the precise moment when everything is perfection – the bands of sunlight passing through soaked clouds, the child leaping with curled tongue into the puddle, the wind picking up leaves in a swirl – and press a button.

Within the world of photography there is technique, technology, methodology, fancy cameras and photoshop filters. The photography majors at MIAD are individuals who seek to articulate an expression all their own. They go beyond technique, beyond specialization, beyond precedence, and into a world unique to their vision, their "eye", and their split second decisions.

At MIAD, technical and creative skills are honed at once, starting in Foundations Photography, focused on intensely during sophomore year. Photographic processes, from up-to-the-minute to hundred-year-old techniques, are explored. Photographic technique can be seen as three separate components, distinct movements which make up a symphony, if you will. These components can be studied, explored, perfected:

• taking the image (lighting, staging, finding and capturing an image)
• manipulating the image (developing negatives, balancing color, making alterations through Photoshop)
• outputting the image (traditional black & white printing, modern digital printing, experimental/non-traditional techniques)

Conceptual concerns are addressed as well. What is the reason to take this image, to change, alter it, to print it in this size / fashion? These questions get at the heart of what makes your photography special and unique, and are the integral questions that make your photography art.

Once technical skills reach a certain point, concept and experimentation take over. Are you interested in studio, documentary, traditional fine art, or truly conceptual/experimental photography? MIAD photo electives allow you to focus on your specific direction.

Photography majors intern as part of the program of study; this introduction into the professional world allows you to truly understand what is expected as a professional in the field. Through your Senior Thesis project, a comprehensive, personal series of work is produced and shown. And at graduation you are prepared to work within a large corporate setting, a small photo agency, or start up your own business.

One thing to be clear about – photography is changing more rapidly than almost any other major. Processes that have remained relatively unchanged for decades are evolving at a pace that rivals any industry. The major you enter will almost certainly look, feel, and be different by the time you graduate. MIAD's program has embraced this reality and will evolve with the industry. The mechanics you employ, the equipment you buy, and the software you use will change, and are ultimately irrelevant in the grand scheme. In the end, it's about vision, your vision of the world and your ability to show others how you see it.