The photography major enables student to develop a critical understanding of how photographic practices shape and reflect our world. It considers the photograph as both a commodity of contemporary culture as well as its distinctive place as an artistic medium and recognizes its vast impact on culture.
Students learn to produce photographic images while thinking critically about visual culture. Students consider the ethics of image capturing and manipulation, and explore image archives to glean the history of contributions to photography, storytelling, and history.
Off-campus photography exhibitions in museums, galleries and site-specific venues and on-campus guest lectures by distinguished photographers contribute to students’ engagement with the field.
Once you become comfortable with the equipment, techniques and elements of the craft, you will explore various genres of photography. You will also be challenged to use the camera to create personally driven documentary and fictive narratives. Beyond creating your own imagery, you will research the extensive history of photography in order to learn and articulate how images gain their strength and power. By learning of the history of photography (artistic, advertising, cultural and vernacular imagery) and image dissemination, you will engage in contextualization of the social and cultural impact of images.
The medium of photography intersects with many other programs on campus because it examines history, politics, culture and society as it documents the times in which we live. Opportunities for interdisciplinary activity both in the arts (sculpture/installation performance, video and film) as well as creative writing, social justice, psychology, philosophy, education and computer science, are rich with possibilities. Collaborations will be driven by you conceptual interests, which will be guided by faculty in these areas of study.
Spelman College Department of Art & Visual Culture
350 Spelman Lane SW, Box 331
Atlanta, GA 30314
404-270-5455
elissagraddy@spelman.edu
Mon. – Fri. | 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Students are introduced to Design Thinking Materials and Software
Where Students Learn to Make
Students learn about art movements and consider the past
Students prepare for a real-world usage of skills
Spelman: Re-created
A project that I am most proud of so far is my “Spelman: Re-created” series, she told VoyagerATL reporter. In the series, Meyers created a reflective work focused on comparing and contrasting the lives of current Spelman students to the lives of students in the past (starting in the 60’s and leading up to the 90’s). Within this project, she aims to not only appreciate where Spelman has been, but also acknowledge how far we’ve come by highlighting the differences and similarities between these generations.
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