This studio course is designed to help students slow down and become more contemplative with their photographic practice. This darkroom based course will give students ultimate compositional control as they learn to use the large format camera. Topics covered will include using the view camera's tilt, swing, shift and rise movements to control focus, perspective and image shape. Student will also learn film exposure techniques and advanced black and white printing controls. Later in the course students will be introduced to large format digital scanning and printing workflows.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $500.00

Elective

This course will focus on basic lighting techniques and principles that will provide students with the skills necessary to feel comfortable in a variety of lighting situations. Students will not only gain an understanding of how light can be manipulated and controlled but also how it can be used to communicate information. The course will serve as an introduction to the studio and to various kinds of tungsten and strobe equipment.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective

In the photographic art world today, exciting new forms of print production have expanded expressive choices for artists, often combining processes from the earliest days of photography with the latest advances in digital media. In this course, students will explore a number of vintage and experimental photographic processes, including cyanotype, wet collodion, platinum/paladium printing, albumen, gum bichromate and liquid light. The goal of the course is to broaden the student's repertoire of photographic printmaking techniques and allow for experimentation with hybrid forms that combine old and new methods in innovative ways.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective

This is a course all photo majors should take to help launch their careers, whatever the specialty-fine art, fashion, commercial, editorial. Classes will include lectures and instruction by the professor and outside experts, covering the breadth of issues professional photographers face, such as building their portfolio, promoting their work, finding jobs, keeping financial records, and legal issues, such as copyright, and model releases. The core of the class involves virtual field trips to visit artists and other photography professionals in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Those visited include many RISD photo graduates who have gone on to make careers in photography, and others who have something to teach about the many issues facing contemporary photographers.

Elective

This course is an ongoing discussion of individual work with special reference to current issues and concerns in contemporary art. Each student will be required to show and discuss work. Grades by participation.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Photography Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Photography

Advanced Darkroom Printing:  Artists who long for more hands on time with their materials are turning to the B&W darkroom. The advanced darkroom printing course is for students who have previous darkroom experience and who want to take their BW printing skills to the next level. In this course students participate in group printing labs where they will learn advanced darkroom printing techniques. Material also covered in include;  film exposure and film development, Pyro film developers, custom print developers, print flashing, bleaching, and toning.  Students will also learn un - sharp negative masking, print retouching and enlarged digital negatives for contact printing. Grading will be base 60% on weekly assignments and 40% on the final portfolio and presentation of 10 perfect prints.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

Elective

This course is designed for art students looking to transition into the creative economy. As the worlds of art and commerce increasingly co-mingle, we will explore how a RISD education and skill set is marketable for business, academia, non-profits, and the gallery world. This hands-on course will include making a business plan, building a brand, finding and dealing with clients, and managing estimates, invoices, taxes, and insurance. Through practical in class exercises, guest lecturers, readings and assignment work, we will address the risks and rewards of making a living as an artist /entrepreneur.

Elective

This course combines an overview of the history, theory, political influences, trends of expression and a survey of past and contemporary artists working in the field, with the opportunity for students to put theoretical study into practice through assignments that aid in the development of one's own project. In weekly critiques of student documentary work including journals that record one's process and self reflection, we will explore the process, grapple with ideological issues that arise, and challenge each other to push our understanding and the development of a documentary language further.

Elective

In this course, students will be introduced to the basic principles of digitally capturing, processing, and printing photographs that are really worth making. We'll cover all the important functions that most digital cameras have in common and we'll go through the fundamentals of using Photoshop to refine and manipulate images. Students will learn their cameras' controls well enough to use the manual settings with confidence, and how to make the automatic features work for them instead of against them. We'll consider what makes a good photograph both technically and creatively, and we'll critique prints made on the Photo department's high-quality Epson printers. Students will need to provide their own digital camera with raw capture capability (DSLR or equivalent), and a portable hard drive (formatted for Mac), both of which they should bring to the first class. (Hard drives will be needed before week 2). Students registered for the course who are in the market for a new camera are welcome to contact the professor for camera purchasing advice.

Elective

This course is an ongoing discussion of individual work with special reference to current issues and concerns in contemporary art. Each student will be required to show and discuss work. Grades by participation.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Photography Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Photography

The Undergraduate Seminar works in complement with Senior Studio to provide a forum in which students assemble in discussion, analysis and reflection around a set of ideas, practices and histories that are of substantial relevance to photography, its history and its contemporary forms. The content of the seminar will vary from year to year, but students will be expected to read, research, discuss, write about and/or present on the material addressed in class. The seminar will interact with the department's Visiting Artist lecture series, with the SEI Lecture Series, and with MCM events at Brown. Attendance at those lectures is highly encouraged.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Senior Photography Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

This course is an ongoing discussion of individual work with special reference to current issues and concerns in contemporary art. Each student will be required to show and discuss work. Grades by participation.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Photography Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Photography

This course is an ongoing discussion of individual work with special reference to current issues and concerns in contemporary art. Each student will be required to show and discuss work. Grades by participation.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Photography Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Photography

This six-credit course is designed to provide the necessary production time for the realization of the Degree Project, culminating in a well-organized and installed public exhibition of a project or body of work in the department's Red Eye Gallery. The Degree Project must be approved by photography faculty and accompanied by a written Degree Project Thesis. Attendance at all departmental visiting artist lectures is required.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Senior Photography Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

A Graduate Thesis is to be determined in consultation with faculty advisor by the beginning of the first semester of the second year.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Photography Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Photography

This period is dedicated to the development and presentation of a body of work supported by a written thesis in consultation with the student's Thesis Committee. The final exhibition and written thesis will be evaluated by the Thesis Committee which will submit a final grade to the Graduate Coordinator.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Photography Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Photography

The Graduate Seminar works in complement with Graduate Critique to provide a forum in which students assemble in discussion, analysis and reflection around a set of ideas, practices and histories that are of substantial relevance to photography, its history and its contemporary forms. The content of the seminar will vary from year to year, but students will be expected to read, research, discuss, write about and/or present on the material addressed in class. The seminar will interact with the department's Visiting Artist lecture series, with the SEI Lecture Series, and with MCM events at Brown. Attendance at those lectures is highly recommended.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Photography Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Photography