Photography
Combining an artistic eye with extensive technical know-how, modern photographers capture our world in images. Photographers work in advertising, fashion, documentary photography, photojournalism, architecture and fine art. Some may choose to work in gallery management, art direction, or photo editing.
What makes us special: superb digital and traditional facilities
Photography students work in both digital and traditional formats, enjoying extensive access to darkroom-based and alternative processing facilities, including two dedicated, fully equipped Digital Imaging labs and darkrooms that include 49 4x5-inch Beseler enlargers.
Two photo galleries feature exhibitions by renowned photographers, and the Paradigm lecture series brings some of the best-known names in the industry to campus. UArts Photography students have the opportunity to work on real-world projects for outside companies and institutions — a recent one involved students shooting all of the photographs for the annual report of one of Philadelphia’s major museums, the Academy of Natural Sciences.
The Photo faculty includes editorial photographers whose work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, Aperture, Fortune, Esquire and Time, and fine-art photographers with work in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Museum of Art at the Smithsonian, and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, among others.
Who are UArts Photography alumni?
Our alums are working photographers, many with their own businesses shooting advertising campaigns, products, people and much more. They are international travel photographers and sought-after fashion photographers. Their fine art photography is exhibited around the world.
One recent alumna was the only female U.S. Marine photographer in the Iraq war. Another's portraits of the greats of the jazz world are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of the City of New York, and the Bill Cosby, Elton John and President William J. Clinton collections, among others.
One Photo grad has been the senior photo editor for National Geographic magazine for over 30 years, while a recent graduate is a co-founder of the Lightroom in Philadelphia, a non-profit photography studio and teaching facility.
