Photography

The Scripps photography program is designed to give students the skills necessary to create, interpret and analyze photographic images. Courses emphasize technical, conceptual, and critical uses of photography while acknowledging photography’s changing role in contemporary culture. The analysis of photographic images is increasingly part of an ever-growing number of academic disciplines; Gender and Women Studies, Media Studies, Cultural Studies, the fine arts, humanities, and sciences have all contributed to the study of photography, and photography has inspired scholars and students to take on new areas of research.

Whether considering an abstracted form taken from nature, the working conditions of sweat-shop, an ethnographic image from the nineteenth century, a mug shot, or a pin-up, photography is no longer a narrow artistic (or scientific) field but part of an ever-expanding fascination with the human experience.

Most importantly, the analysis and production of photographic images allows students the opportunity to develop their own intellectual and artistic voices within an academic community that is as sensitive to their concerns as it is demanding of their excellence.

The Photo Lab

The photo lab is available to students 24 hours a day, and it is not uncommon to find students working till the early morning hours just before a group critique. The darkroom and lab facilities offer a full range of black and white photographic processes, and students are expected to develop, print, spot, and prepare the work for exhibition -whether that requires cutting traditional window mats, or creating a site-specific installation. Students do pay a lab fee for the course, and this fee provides them will all the chemicals they can use, and equipment check-out privileges. Students must pay for their own paper and film.

Equipment Check-Out

Photography equipment can be checked out from Scripps’ Audio Visual office, and they have a number a 35mm, medium format Hasselblat, and large format cameras as well as strobe and hot light kits. Backdrops, tripods, and hand-held light meters are also available to students enrolled in Scripps courses. Studio Art classrooms can be used for photo shoots when classes are not in session.