Lesley University College of Art and Design
Master of Fine Arts in Photography and Integrated Media
Program Overview
Throughout its evolution, photography has been a slowly moving glacier of adaptation and obsolescence followed closely by familial transformations influenced by the heat of science, technology, critical analysis, and cultural practice. I think of these influences and processes as I do the boulders in the woods near my studio in New Hampshire… evidential scat from a glacier’s melting. Each overlapping layer of transformation has ushered in an ever-greater democratization of photographic image making, adoption, and adaptation and each of these cycles have been identified by the family name, photography, regardless of how odd the new offspring appeared. What each new incarnation had in common was a single salient identification… that of making marks with light. Our program, and the amazing candidates who become masters within it, share a driven curiosity to see where a photographic concept or light-dependent process, and perhaps its integration with other media, will guide them. In our current roles, as practitioners of the discipline we love, we are enjoying the right time-right place gift of unlimited possibilities, making this the most exciting time in the photographic arts in over a century. It represents, for me, the new photography, a marriage of contemporary analog, digital, and inter-disciplinary studio practice and technologies.
– Christopher James Director, MFA in Photography & Integrated Media
An Emphasis on Craft and Content
MFA student orientation at Christopher James’ studio in Dublin, NH - 2017.
From its inception in 2011, our MFA in Photography and Integrated Media program has been nurtured as a collaborative work in progress, emphasizing craft and concept driven photographic and visually related studio practice. We are a community made up of core and guest faculty, Visiting Artist / Scholars and MFA candidates. We are a full residency, 2-year, seminar-centric graduate program focusing upon concentrated studio practice, critical studies, and professional studies, and on the fluid integration of contemporary technologies and media within traditional and alternative photographic and artistic practice. The mission of the program is to view the art of photographic image making not as a single area of study but as the merging of photography with traditional studio mediums, contemporary digital and light-based media, performance, installation, and related cultural influences. There is a concentrated emphasis placed upon graduate-level skills in the written and spoken word, as evident in the weight of importance on the written and visual components presented in seminars and in final thesis projects. Our continuing program development is motivated by the premise that photography is in the midst of change, and that the contemporary artists who are attracted to our program are actively redefining its identity.
The new home for the College of Art and Design - the Lunder Arts Center complex
Relation to The College of Art & Design’s Mission
The College of Art and Design is a college of art within Lesley University and is dedicated to professional preparation through intensive studio practice combined with traditional studio practice, critical studies, art history, and professional studies. As such, this relatively new MFA fits smoothly within the College of Art and Design’s overall mission, especially in its emphasis on preparing artists for professional careers in the field of their choice. The College of Art and Design has recently moved into its new home, the $48 million dollar Lunder Arts Center and complex (that incorporates the church in the image below), at 1801 Massachusetts Avenue, in Porter Square, a single subway stop from Harvard Square.
Program Design
The 2022 – 2023 academic year will be our 10th year of successful operation and this May (2023) we will celebrate 10th year. The program design involves an intense focus on studio practice and seminar critique, combined with self-directed study in each student’s area of professional interest. Students will have access to state of the art digital technologies as well as alternative process, historical, and integrated-media related resources. Building on our current faculty expertise in these areas, we offer a flexible curriculum that will be attractive to artists who are pursuing their own individual vision using photographic means, and where traditional media will have new life in the hands of 21st century visual communicators and artists. Our program is designed to serve students who have completed their undergraduate degree or who, in unique circumstances, have equivalent life-experience; photographers practicing in the field; artists working in photographic media and in cross-disciplinary directions, alternative photographic processes, video, installation, performance, and artist books. The program is built upon the international reputation of its faculty, all resident and Visiting Artist/Scholars, and the Director of the MFA program, Christopher James.
It was a difficult decision to go back to school to get my graduate degree, but I’m very glad that I did. Christopher’s program helped solidify and achieve my goals. The professors and visiting artists were incredibly helpful in assisting the realization of many ideas that I’d be grappling with for years. The challenging nature of this program confirmed my own tenacity, internal drive, and worthiness to be in a competitive arts field.
During the program, I began unpacking the images I was making. I realized the act of discovery associated with 19th century photography—the inherent excitement that stems from being at the forefront of a brand new field—that was at the root of it all. I’m interested in things that photography discovers through the aid of technology, whether historical or bleeding edge; things that challenge the core of contemporary image making and how we perceive the world.
– Danielle Ezzo, MFA Photography and Integrated Media Graduate, 2015
Danielle Ezzo, Portrait Series, 2015
“The MFA candidates at LUCAD are sharp, engaged, and working hard in an impressively wide range of artistic modes and media. This remarkable program encourages students to think incisively and independently, to understand the artistic and cultural context in which their work falls, and—perhaps most important—to communicate effectively about their creative endeavors. The MFA students have the opportunity to share their works in process with visiting reviewers throughout the year, and each semester ends with a productive discussion between MFA candidates and a jury of outside critics, scholars, and artists. In my own experience as a juror, I have been very impressed by the intelligence of the work presented and the level of conversation, as well as by the students’ evident hunger to learn from this experience. Lesley’s fulltime MFA faculty is clearly devoted to the program and its candidates, working with energy, insight, and sensitivity, always with a view to moving the students’ art toward deeper levels of meaning and revelation.”
– Diana Stoll, Editor and Visiting Artist / Scholar - Aperture Foundation, 2016
Program Facilities
The College of Art and Design’s program is unique in its emphasis on professional
practice, the hand-made image, and the integration of contemporary and traditional photographic image making in all media. Students are provided with a professionally equipped, 17-station, black and white darkroom, processing, finishing, and toning rooms, a cyclorama video projection studio, multiple digital photo labs with state of the art equipment, dedicated fine art digital printing studio facilities, private and public studios, and a superb dedicated alternative photographic process facility (see below). As well, MFA candidates will enjoy access to the working studios, a new production facility of a professional college of art, such as printmaking, ceramics, painting, sculpture, artist’s books, etc., when taking courses in those disciplines. Our lab and digital lock-ups feature a huge selection of still and video cameras in all formats, DSLRs, video equipment, studio and location lighting and an abundance of professional equipment. Personal “clean” and “dirty” working studios are available.
