MFA in Photography
"Our program seeks individuals who approach the medium of photography from diverse angles yet wish to participate in a community of artists. We want to foster each student's best abilities, visual, verbal, critical." Laura McPhee
MassArt's 60 credit, full-time MFA in Photography explores the medium as a means of self-expression. The emphasis is on personal vision, experimentation, an understanding of the history of photography and the body of contemporary criticism that surrounds it as well as insuring technical excellence.
Senior faculty include Laura McPhee (Program Coordinator), Abelardo Morell (Emeritus), Nick Nixon and Barbara Bosworth. Laura McPhee's work has been the subject of an extensive solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Abelardo Morell (Emeritus), known best for his images made with a camera obscura, exhibits and publishes widely, including most recently in "Behind the Seen: The Photographs of Abelardo Morell" at the Yale University Art Gallery. Nick Nixon, the subject of two exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and a retrospective at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (through May 2011), is best known for his humanistic black and white portraits. Barbara Bosworth has exhibited landscape photography in "Human Nature: the Photographs of Barbara Bosworth," at the Phoenix Art Museum.
Junior members of the photography faculty include Matthew Connors (Post-Baccalaureate Program Coordinator) and Eirik Johnson. A monograph on Eirik's work, entitled Borderlands, has just been published by Twin Palms Publishers and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Matthew Connors creates montages, often of urban scenes that are re-combined in a rigorous fashion that includes digital re-imaging. The resultant seamless hybrids often posit "a global condition where photographic truth is indistinguishable from manipulation."
Visiting artists are an integral part of both programs. In addition to Major Studio and adjunct advisor critiques, visits from prominent photographers, critics and curators provide an opportunity for feedback on student work, and the department has a strong artist and critic lecture series. Visitors have included: Walead Beshty, Elinor Carucci, James Casebere, William Christenberry, Lois Conner, Linda Connor, Charlotte Cotton, Gregory Crewdson, Tim Davis, P. L. DiCorcia, Jim Dow, Mitch Epstein, Joan Fontcuberta, Jason Fulford, Katy Grannan, Emmet Gowin, Andy Grundberg, Justine Kurland, Laura Letinsky, Susan Meiselas, Vik Muniz, Laurel Nakadate, Doug Nickel, Sandra Phillips, Thomas Roma, Luc Sante, Gary Schneider, Rebecca Solnit, Alec Soth, Jem Southam, Larry Sultan, Shellburne Thurber, Penelope Umbrico, and Kim Yasuda.
Extensive facilities include: individual darkrooms for MFA students, a non-silver darkroom, individual studio spaces, a graduate digital facility with large format printers, analog black and white developing and printing areas, sheet film processing room, analog color printing with a 42" Colex machine. Of special note is the 20x24 Polaroid "Land Camera", built by Edwin Landseer (1909-91), founder of Polaroid. Only seven of these cameras were ever made and MassArt's is the only one not in commercial use or in a museum.
For more information visit the website of MassArt's Graduate Programs.