Photography
New York City is an epicenter of the contemporary art community and the green borough of Brooklyn is at the heart of it all. Our program provides students with opportunities to develop photographic techniques and concepts that will help them create meaningful images for themselves and for others.
Pratt’s BFA in photography gives you the knowledge and experience needed to exhibit, publish, and intelligently discuss your photographic work, as well as the technical skills necessary to pursue careers in the photographic arts and applied industries and expertise over analog and digital photographic materials and techniques. Because of the professional training in Pratt’s photography program, our graduates pursue exciting careers as photographers, photo editors, gallerists, publishers, and professors to name a few.
New York City has an abundance of internship and job opportunities for photography students and graduates of the program enter exciting careers working in traditional and online publishing, higher education, technology, and the museum and gallery worlds to name a few. They have succeeded in positions at innovative and venerable institutions including The Aperture Foundation, BuzzFeed, Harper’s Bazaar, National Geographic, The New York Times, and Ted Talks, and they have published and exhibited their work in gallery and museum settings.
Photography, alongside writing and thinking, helps us to locate ourselves in relationship to others. Given the central role that images play in our lives today, demonstrating literacy in photography has taken on new meaning, new urgency, and new forms. How does one understand the complexity of the world and our place within it without understanding how we make images, how we think about the images we make, and how we critically receive the images made by others? In an age defined by memes, social media, viral videos and deep fakes, the role of the photographer is to be sharp, alert, and ready to process the information we receive in the form of pictures.
For us, a photographer is someone who establishes strong photographic practices through the study of analog and digital processes, the histories and theories of photography, and the development of critical thinking. A photographer considers the fundamental principles and elements of art and design like color, composition, form, and lighting and combines them with the desire to photograph and document what is around them to actively contribute to world culture and society.
Chair
Shannon Ebner
Assistant Chair
Tori Purcell
Assistant to the Chair
Beth Gilbert
Technical Director
John O'Toole
Technicians
Fortunato Castro
Martin Lennon
Lauren Roeder
Academic Adviser
Amy Ungricht
Office
Tel: 718.687.5639
photo@pratt.edu
www.pratt.edu/photography
Faculty Bios
www.pratt.edu/photography/faculty
PHOT-105 Black and White Photography - (3 Credits)
This is an introductory course in black-and-white photography. The course will introduce basic techniques, including small-camera operation, film exposure and development, and the contact printing, enlarging, and finishing of black-and-white photographs, as well as concept development and image content. Emphasis will be placed on the ability of students to master the technical skills necessary to begin developing their own artistic style and using the medium as a communicative tool. Visual presentations will acquaint students with photographers who have influenced the development of the medium.
PHOT-205 Sophomore Critique - (3 Credits)
This course is the first in a project-and-seminar sequence in which students develop a sense of analysis, synthesis, assessment, and self-reflection regarding their own photographic production, the work of peers, and cultural production at large. This course focuses on approaches to project development and critique. Readings and discussions will examine the dissemination of images and ideas as it relates to the aesthetics and social significance of photography.
PHOT-206 Intermediate Black and White Photography - (3 Credits)
This course will build upon the skills, techniques, and ideas introduced in Black-and-White Photography and persist in developing the mechanical skills and visual awareness necessary to make engaging black-and-white photographs.
PHOT-207 Advanced Black and White Photography - (3 Credits)
Each step in the making of black-and-white photographs is investigated in this course. Students will be taught how to fine-tune their tools and materials so that their fullest creative potential can be realized. This course weaves together recently developed technical skills and analytical thinking about black-and-white photography.
PHOT-210 Digital Photography - (3 Credits)
This is an introductory course in digital photography. In this course, students are introduced to color techniques and theories. The course will cover the basics of color photography, including image capture, file management, image processing, and digital printing. Students will gain a broader understanding of photography as an artistic medium through readings, critiques, class discussions, and field trips.
PHOT-211 Intermediate Digital Photography - (3 Credits)
Expanding upon the photographic techniques and concepts introduced in Digital Photography, students in this course will gain an in-depth understanding of digital file management; editing and processing; and printing techniques. The discussion of photographic and media artists who use the internet and digital-imaging software will help students understand how these tools are being used today.
PHOT-212 Digital Photography Expanded - (3 Credits)
This course introduces students to digital video production in the context of expanded photographic practice. Students will learn camera operation, lighting and sound recording video and sound editing, and exporting techniques using digital video editing software Assignments, readings, screenings, and discussions will draw upon the work of artists and filmmakers employing single and multichannel formats.
PHOT-220 Large Format Photography - (3 Credits)
This course introduces students to the view camera and its uses. Emphasis is placed on developing a sense of familiarity with the camera and utilizing its unique potential, such as its ability to correct perspective and render fine detail. Students will additionally learn how the large-format camera's technical and expressive capabilities differ from those of hand-held cameras.
PHOT-221 Large Format Photography II - (3 Credits)
In this course students delve deeper into the world of large-format photography. Emphasis is placed on mastering the skills acquired in Large Format I through exploration of various photographic genres, such as landscape, architecture, portraiture, and still life. While continuing emphasis is placed on control and manipulation inherent in the view camera, the course will also explore experimental and abstract approaches.
PHOT-222 Lighting I - (3 Credits)
This course covers all aspects of artificial light used in photography, both in the studio and on location. Students will become familiar with key concepts, including understanding and controlling the quality of light and the architecture of multiple light set ups. The course will cover ideal lighting for portraiture, still life, and interior spaces will be covered.
PHOT-240 Acts of Recognition: Race, Ethics and Representation - (3 Credits)
This undergraduate seminar course explores the roles of photography in shaping, revising, and visualizing identities. The course delves into themes of digital technologies, colonial legacies, race, feminisms, gender, queerness, intersectionality and the archive. Students study both historical and contemporary artworks through lectures, hands-on activities, in-class discussions, and critical engagement of theoretical texts.
PHOT-305 Junior Research I - (3 Credits)
This course focuses on methods of artistic research and how they apply to project development, and emphasizes personal vision and continuity of ideas. Through written,oral, and visual presentations of their artisic investigations, students will strengtnen their analytical and critical skills.
PHOT-306 Junior Research II - (3 Credits)
Having identified their own independent set of concerns in the prerequisite Junior Research I, students in this course will continue to research their ideas. In addition to applying their research to individual project development, this course will delve deeper into the nature of photography as a practice. Photography's relationship with other media will be addressed, allowing students to find broader contexts for their work and place it within existing conversations about art and society.
PHOT-340 Contemporary Issues in Photography - (3 Credits)
Contemporary Issues in photography and related art forms are examined from aesthetic, cultural, social, and political points of view. The course is based on exhibitions in the New York area; recent books, magazines, and catalogs; and individual research.
PHOT-345 Lensless Photography - (3 Credits)
This course explores lensless methods in photography. The emphasis will be on pinhole photography, Photograms, and camera obscura analog materials.
PHOT-373 Cuba through the Lens Storytelling - (3 Credits)
Through the study of Cuban film and photography, from the 1960's through the present, the course will examine the impact of the Cuban Revolution on the country's social and cultural development, providing the student with basic knowledge of contemporary Cuba. The course will include a week in Cuba, where students will tour Havana, visit major cultural institutions, meet with photographers and filmmakers, and work on a visual project to be exhibited at our Brooklyn campus and in Havana.
PHOT-390 Professional Practices in Photography - (3 Credits)
This course explores various career paths that may be considered by students within the fine art and commercial photographic industries. Students will learn the practical skills and approaches necessary to comfortably enter the marketplace. Additionally, students are exposed to a range of resources and opportunities for artists and professionals.
PHOT-404 Expanded Documentary - (3 Credits)
This course explores contemporary approaches to social documentary photography and related forms in which techniques such as the archive, appropriation, digital manipulation: and conceptual and self-reflexive strategies including the autobiographical, the fictive, and the performative are utilized. Critiques will challenge and support expanded documentary projects by students. Simultaneously, the class will examine the work of historical and contemporary artists whose work embodies expanded documentary practice.
PHOT-405 Senior Thesis I - (3 Credits)
In the first semester of Senior Thesis, students focus on the visual and written components of thesis development, as well as on professional practices, in preparation for a career in photography and related fields. Readings, discussions, and critiques will further enhance a student's contextual understanding of their artistic work in contemporary culture. Students will also learn about the history and practice of art exhibition design through lectures and visits to galleries and museums. The course culminates in a survey critique of students' work in preparation for their exhibitions of a finished body of work in the second semester of Senior Thesis.
PHOT-406 Senior Thesis II - (3 Credits)
In the second semester of Senior Thesis, students complete the transition from formal academic study to independent development and professional practice. This course synthesizes the goals and objectives of both required and elective coursework and introduces students to the rigors of maintaining an active professional photographic practice. Readings, discussions, and critiques will solidify a student's contextual understanding of their artistic work in contemporary culture. The course culminates in public senior thesis exhibitions that include both visual and written components.
PHOT-412 The Photographer's Writing Studio - (3 Credits)
This course teaches photographers how to write about-and see writing as an extension of-their artistic practice. Through numerous reading drawn from the fields of art, literature, and poetry, students encounter creative, experimental, and essayistic approaches to writing. The course will culminate in a paper that gives textual form to their thesis research.
PHOT-413 The Photo Book - (3 Credits)
This course explores the use of multiple photographic images in book and series form. It focuses on the sequencing, spacing, and narrative aspects of images in books, as well as on introducing students to various bookbinding and print on demand techniques. Students examine portfolio content and the history of photography's use of the book and other serial formats.
PHOT-414 Publishing the Photo Book - (3 Credits)
This course will examine how photobooks-zines, artist books, catalogues, serial publications, and other forms of printed matter- are currently redefining the contemporary practice of photography. The photobook will be framed in a critical, conceptual, professional, and practical context. Students will investigate Course Description: bookmaking and publishing as a form of artistic practice.
PHOT-415 Alternative Processes: Nonsilver - (3 Credits)
This studio class will serve as an introduction to the history and practice of various alternative photographic processes. Students are introduced to photographic processes that bridge the gap between traditional photography and the aesthetics of painting and printmaking. Lightsensitive emulsions are applied to paper, cloth, or other materials by hand. Processes include cyanotype, van dyke, blue van dyke, and gum bichromate printing.
PHOT-416 Alt Processes: Silver and Platinum - (3 Credits)
This course will introduce students to vintage printing processes renowned for their expressive capability, subtlety of tone, and rich descriptive detail. The unique capability and characteristic quality of each process will be presented with respect to its historical context as well as its contemporary practice. Processes include cyanotype, kallitype, salt printing, and platinum/palladium and will be addressed through lectures, demonstrations, in-class practice, and critique of weekly shooting and printing requirements.
PHOT-422 Lighting II - (3 Credits)
This course is a continuation of Lighting I, covering advanced techniques and applications of the use of artificial light. Students will explore in depth the practical application of studio photography as it relates to the fine art, editorial, and commercial photographic industries. Moving beyond competence with lighting set-ups, students will discover the expressive possibilities of artificial light and how it dovetails with in-camera and post production manipulation.
PHOT-423 The Color of Photography - (3 Credits)
This course delves into the multifaceted role of color in photography, emphasizing its significance in conveying ideas and emotions. A central theme of the course is the societal construction of color, highlighting how cultural norms and individual perspectives influence its interpretation. Through a blend of theoretical exploration and practical application, students will investigate the creation and manipulation of color, understanding it as a powerful tool for visual storytelling.
PHOT-443 Photography:Theory & Practice - (3 Credits)
This course helps students explore the interrelation of critical theory and artistic practice. Students will explore a selection of theoretical texts, artworks, images, and other media as a way of discussing critical issues in photography. We will examine photographic theory in an effort to understand the cultural and social conditions of artistic production and of broader visual culture. Discussion of readings, visual presentations by both faculty and students, and field trips to exhibitions at area galleries and museums will provide an understanding of theory utilized in photographic practice.
PHOT-455 Digital Monochrome - (3 Credits)
This course explores techniques available for printing exhibition quality monochromatic images using digital technologies. The class covers digital workflows as well as hybrid (analog and digital) workflows. The class will focus on aesthetic, conceptual and technical considerations of developing a monochromatic project using digital processes.
PHOT-460 Photography: Curatorial Practices - (3 Credits)
The course stresses research and presentation, as well as understanding of the history of the creation of photography-based exhibitions, with the goal of providing useful curatorial experience. The class will explore aspects of the history of the presentation of photographs to the broad public, beginning with the 1938 Walker Evans: American photographs exhibition at MoMA and tracing a path through the intervening years leading up to very recent exhibitions. Students will study important exhibitions as well as texts related to their creation, implementation, and reception. Students will acquire archival research and develop a familiarity with conceiving an exhibition, designing it, and presenting it.
PHOT-464 Street Photography: History and Practice - (3 Credits)
This course is an exploration of the historical and current practice of street photography. Students will be introduced to a wide range of historical and contemporary figures working in the genre. Through weekly photographic assignments, presentations, critiques, readings, and discussion, students will develop a concise group of pictures that reflect a personal point of view and an understanding of street photography.
PHOT-465 Editorial Photography - (3 Credits)
This course will explore photography's role in the publishing and online media industries, including the photographic practices of reportage and the use of photography to illustrate concepts and ideas. Students will be introduced to various roles within the industry, from photographer to photo editor to art director, and how they work in collaboration to convey a story or an idea.
PHOT-466 Fashion Photography - (3 Credits)
This course covers the technical aspects and aesthetic strategies of fashion photography, ranging from still life and beauty work to editorial and advertising shoots involving models. Students will learn to pitch visual ideas and realize them with the help of sound planning, good communication and teamwork. Post production issues and an investigation of the intricacies and history of the fashion marketing industry will also be addressed.
PHOT-470 Socially Engaged Media - (3 Credits)
This course will introduce students to the history and contemporary practice of using photography in activist practices. Students will create socially engaged critical narratives using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, and other online social media. Starting with individual forms like blogs and online journalism, students will later be encouraged to produce hybrid narratives through both individual and collective projects.
PHOT-474 Photography and Collage - (3 Credits)
This course explores the intersection of photography and collage. Through the use of photographs and three dimensional materials, students will produce work that expands the perspective of how photography in incorporated into collage works. Students will learn both the historical and contemporary practice of collage through exposure to artists working in the genre.
PHOT-475 The Photographic Object - (3 Credits)
This course explores the intersection of photography and sculpture. We will study the work of contemporary and historical artists who place a particular emphasis on the physical presence of their work by rejecting the notion of a transparent frame. Readings, material research and field trips will broaden our understanding of he philosophical underpinnings and practical considerations at play in contemporary photographic practice. Students will consistently produce work for the class in response to readings and assignments, culminating in a final portfolio and exhibition of works.
PHOT-480 Special Projects - (3 Credits)
Specials projects enables students to collaboratively develop an ambitious project over the course of the semester. Emphasis is placed on research and ideation, as well as on skills necessary for the development and refinement of a project. As this course draws upon the professional expertise and interests of the instructor, it is highly flexible and rarely repeated without modification.
PHOT-490 Photography Lectures - (1 Credit)
The Photography Lectures course combines research techniques, expository writing, and critical discussions in conjunction with visiting lecturers. The featured lecturers are comprised of photographers, critics, and curators speaking about their work. This course takes as its subject photography's diverse history and its contemporary practice to highlight debates around the medium's formal aesthetics, social engagement, photographic meaning, and the distribution of images.
PHOT-491 Photography Lectures - (1 Credit)
The Photography Lectures course combines research techniques, expository writing, and critical discussions in conjunction with visiting lecturers. The featured lecturers are comprised of photographers, critics, and curators speaking about their work. This course takes as its subject photography's diverse history and its contemporary practice to highlight debates around the medium's formal aesthetics, social engagement, photographic meaning, and the distribution of images.
PHOT-492 Photography Lectures - (1 Credit)
The Photography Lectures course combines research techniques, expository writing, and critical discussions in conjunction with visiting lecturers. The featured lecturers are comprised of photographers, critics, and curators speaking about their work. This course takes as its subject photography's diverse history and its contemporary practice to highlight debates around the medium's formal aesthetics, social engagement, photographic meaning, and the distribution of images.
PHOT-493 Photography Lectures - (1 Credit)
The Photography Lectures course combines research techniques, expository writing, and critical discussions in conjunction with visiting lecturers. The featured lecturers are comprised of photographers, critics, and curators speaking about their work. This course takes as its subject photography's diverse history and its contemporary practice to highlight debates around the medium's formal aesthetics, social engagement, photographic meaning, and the distribution of images.
PHOT-494 Photography Lectures - (1 Credit)
The Photography lectures course combines research techniques, expository writing, and critical discussions in conjunction with visiting lecturers. The featured lecturers are comprised of photographers, critics, and curators speaking about their work. This course takes as its subject photography's diverse history and its contemporary practice to highlight debates around the medium's formal aesthetics, social engagement, photographic meaning, and the distribution of image.
PHOT-495 Photography Lectures - (1 Credit)
The Photography lectures course combines research techniques, expository writing, and critical discussions in conjunction with visiting lecturers. The featured lecturers are comprised of photographers,critics, and curators speaking about their work. This course takes as its subject photography's diverse history and its contemporary practice to highlight debates around the medium's formal aesthetics, social engagement, photographic meaning, and the distribution of image.
PHOT-9400 Photography Internship - (0 Credits)
The internship is a learning experience at a discipline-related professional site. It provides students with an opportunity to apply academic knowledge and skills in a practical setting, while obtaining new knowledge and skills in preparation for professional work or graduate school. Students experience the application of coursework lessons into a real-life context, thus enriching their education. They deepen their knowledge about important applied aspects of their discipline, enhance their professional skills in a real-world context, build their professional network, and inform their career choices. Additional faculty-supervised activities provide the opportunity for an in-depth reflection on the internship experience.
PHOT-9401 Photography Internship - (1 Credit)
The internship is a learning experience at a discipline-related professional site. It provides students with an opportunity to apply academic knowledge and skills in a practical setting, while obtaining new knowledge and skills in preparation for professional work or graduate school. Students experience the application of coursework lessons into a real-life context, thus enriching their education. They deepen their knowledge about important applied aspects of their discipline, enhance their professional skills in a real-world context, build their professional network, and inform their career choices. Additional faculty-supervised activities provide the opportunity for an in-depth reflection on the internship experience
PHOT-9402 Photography Internship - (2 Credits)
The internship is a learning experience at a discipline-related professional site. It provides students with an opportunity to apply academic knowledge and skills in a practical setting, while obtaining new knowledge and skills in preparation for professional work or graduate school. Students experience the application of coursework lessons into a real-life context, thus enriching their education. They deepen their knowledge about important applied aspects of their discipline, enhance their professional skills in a real-world context, build their professional network, and inform their career choices. Additional faculty-supervised activities provide the opportunity for an in-depth reflection on the internship experience
PHOT-9403 Photography Internship (3 Credits) - (3 Credits)
The internship is a learning experience at a discipline-related professional site. It provides students with an opportunity to apply academic knowledge and skills in a practical setting, while obtaining new knowledge and skills in preparation for professional work or graduate school. Students experience the application of coursework lessons into a real-life context, thus enriching their education. They deepen their knowledge about important applied aspects of their discipline, enhance their professional skills in a real-world context, build their professional network, and inform their career choices. Additional faculty-supervised activities provide the opportunity for an in-depth reflection on the internship experience