College of Visual and Performing Arts: Programs In Art Photography

Virtual open house and conversation with prominent alumni: January 21, 6:30pm EST  
Click here to register.

Please join us for an open house and discussion with alumni Siyaka Taylor-Lewis, Amrita Stuetzle, Jiankun Xie. We will be broadcasting from Light Work with director Shane Lavalette. 

The faculty at Syracuse University’s MFA art photography program has built a dynamic program that appreciates the ways in which photography as a contemporary art has transformed in the past two decades. The dramatic expansion of the parameters of photographic practices and increasingly global nature of the contemporary art world necessitates an educational environment that prepares students for entirely new challenges and opportunities. Our MFA students are offered access to professional residencies in New York, Los Angeles and Berlin; interdisciplinary courses that braid diverse ideas and practices; state-of-the-art equipment and media production studios; and significant investments in curriculum and facilities to ensure students are unencumbered to pursue their creative passions.

We are acutely aware of the financial burdens of graduate education and have generous tuition discounts, scholarship, and teaching positions available. Graduate students admitted to the program benefit from substantial financial assistance and can receive up to 20,000 USD per year of study. Many of our students also receive teaching assistantships and hourly paid positions.

Our faculty (Yasser Aggour, Doug DuBois, Laura Heyman, and Susannah Sayler) is a diverse group of working artists who have a comprehensive knowledge of contemporary photography and are experienced in documentary, video, conceptual, and performance art, as well as curatorial practices. Together with our students, we have created an academic environment that is intellectually rigorous yet supportive. Recent graduates of the program have participated in numerous exhibitions and received awards, residencies, and academic appointments, including a Guggenheim fellowship and a MacArthur “genius” grant.

Students benefit from our close partnership with Light Work, housed on the Syracuse University campus. As one of the world’s leading photo institutes, Light Work organizes exhibitions, residencies, lectures, and workshops and publishes Contact Sheet. Our graduate students are granted membership access to one of the nation’s leading photo production facilities and on any given day may be working alongside major international artists. Light Work is an invaluable intellectual, professional, and technical resource unique to Syracuse University.

Between the contemporary programing at Light Work and our visiting artist program, our students receive mentoring from some of the art world’s leading artists and curators. Recent visitors include Collier Schorr, Farah Al Qasimi, Rahim Fortune, Jason Fulford, William Camargo, Danielle Bowman, Deana Lawson, Dana Lixenberg, Laurel Ptak, Zora Murff, Ryan MacNamara, Zoe Strauss, Leigh Ledare, Carrie Mae Weems, Elinor Carucci, Penelope Umbrico, Susan Meiselas, Alec Soth, Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa, Cauleen Smith, Shimon Attie, Denise Markonish, Sam Falls, Arnold Kemp, An-My Lê,  Justine Kurland, Jesse Darling, Liz Cohen, Kelly Reichardt and Kim Bourus, among others.

In addition to artist studios and access to a full range of media production equipment and facilities, M.F.A. candidates have the opportunity to visit and participate in exhibitions at a number of internationally recognized venues, including the Everson Museum, Syracuse University Art Museum, and Urban Video Project.

Alumni: La Toya Ruby Frazier (MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellow); Rose Marie Cromwell (Vice, Harper’s Magazine, The Fader); David Politzer (Cabinet Magazine, Eyebeam, El Paso Museum of Art, Assistant Professor of Photography and Digital Media at University of Houston); Widline Cadet (The New Yorker, Time Magazine, FOAM, Snider Proze, NYFA Fellow, Studio Museum in Harlem artist in residence) Shawn Records (Vice, NYT Magazine, MOCP, Portland Art Museum, Jen Beckman), Nydia Blas (Over the Influence, Los Angeles, CA, George Washington Carver Museum, Austin, TX, Paris Photo, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Vogue, Huffington Post, Dazed and Confused, Lensculture, Assistant Professor of Art & Visual Culture at Spelman College) Courtney Asztalos (Fort Wayne Museum of Art, The Front in New Orleans, Art Helix in NYC, Meinblau, Berlin, Post Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, The New Yorker, Paper Journal, Der Greif, The New York Times, The Wire) D’Angelo Lovell Williams (Higher Pictures Generation, The Mint Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, W magazine, Out Magazine, New York Times Magazine, Strange Fire Collective, The Ones We Love, Vice)

Applications to our MFA program for fall 2021 are now online. The final deadline for applications is February 1.