SFAI approaches photography as a visual and conceptual tool, a way to construct narrative, and a means to document the world.
SFAI is home to the first "fine art" photography program in the country founded by Ansel Adams. The photography curriculum prepares students to bring a critical and historical understanding of the photographic medium in the exploration of conceptual ideas with new image making capabilities. Students work in both digital and analogue formats with the opportunity to experiment with a variety of photographic processes, print surfaces, and equipment while considering issues around representation, scale, installation, site-specific works, and audience.
Past Courses
Virtual Tour of Photography Studios
Facilities
Our Photography Department’s resources include a 12 station group darkroom and private darkrooms, all with Saunders and Beseler enlargers to print 35 mm to 4x5 inch negatives; a digital facility, fully color managed with Mac Pro towers, Epson V700& 10000XL, Nikon 9000, and Hasselblad Flextight X5 scanners; a fleet of state of the art Epson inkjet printers to digitally print up to 44” wide; a 30x40 inch UV light exposure unit for historic processes; filtered and temperature controlled water for film processing; a fully equipped lighting studio with a green screen and lighting grid; mat cutting facilities; and a smart classroom with Intel iMac computers, scanners, Epson printers, and flat file storage. Digital and film cameras, including Canon SLRs; 4K video cameras; 35mm, medium format, and 4x5 cameras; lighting gear from strobe to kino lighting kits, are available to students for checkout.
Curriculum
| Title | Units |
|---|---|
| Liberal Arts Requirements (Examples: Global Social Movements, Un/Natural Ideologies, Concepts of Creativity, Mathematics: A Visual History, Extinction) | 33 |
| Studio & General Elective Requirements | 72 |
| Art History Requirements | 15 |
| Title | Units |
|---|---|
| Introduction to Photography | 3 |
| Contemporary Tools and Practices | 3 |
| Technical Elective | 6 |
| Digital Photography I | 3 |
| Digital Photography II | 3 |
| Conceptual Elective (Ex: Beyond What's Out There: Constructed Photography, Digital Bookmarking and Publishing) | 6 |
| History of Photography II | 3 |
| Photo Elective (Ex: Sacred and Profane II, Disruption and Order: Bringing Photographs Together) | 6 |
| Contemporary Practice | 3 |
| Electives in any studio discipline (Ex: Relief Printing, Real Life Comics, Surfaces: Illusion/Abstraction) | 24 |
| General Electives | 9 |
| Senior Review Seminar | 3 |
| BFA Exhibition | 0 |
| Title | Units |
|---|---|
| Topics and Foundations in Global Visual Culture | 3 |
| Topics and Foundations in Contemporary Art | 3 |
| History of the Major | 3 |
| Art History Elective | 3 |
| Art History Elective | 3 |
Faculty
Program Learning Outcomes
Hop Studios
