Photography

Vision 

The Photography Program within the Department of Art & Art History at the University of La Verne offers undergraduate-level courses that develop technical and historical literacy, critical thinking, communication and conceptual skills for a practice-based approach to the medium. The combined curriculum of analog and digital photographic methods provides the students with a full technical and theoretical grounding necessary for maintaining an artistic practice while refining the practical skills applicable to building a photographic career in the artistic, commercial and/or media fields.

Mission

Our student-centered mission is focused on encouraging creatives to discover and question their own motivations for making photographic art while providing them with the foundation and tools to continue to advance their education after graduation. In so doing, the faculty and staff work to support and inspire the next generation of artists and leaders—ensuring that once they earn their degrees, they enter the world as engaged, independent, self-directed artists, scholars and citizens.

Within our Program we promote exploration and push students to work outside their comfort zones, asserting that they “must become comfortable with being uncomfortable.” This basic philosophy empowers students to gain new perspectives and modes of creation through stretching themselves technically and conceptually to further expand and advance their artistic practice and education.

Learning Outcomes:  

Students who successfully complete a BA in Photography will be able to:

• Demonstrate broad knowledge of photographic processes and history. (Literacy)
• Describe and analyze works of visual photographic art critically and relate them to historical and contemporary contexts. (Critical Thinking)
• Articulate photographic concepts in writing, orally and visually. (Communication)
• Create and exhibit and/or publish original art and/or research projects by applying photographic tools, skills, methods and sources. (Production)

The University of La Verne’s Photography Program and the Irene Carlson Gallery of Photography, stand in solidarity with those protesting for civil rights and social justice reforms across our nation. We are outraged as we mourn the senseless murders and the countless other victims to gun violence, police brutality and systemic racism within our country.

We embrace an intersectional framework for defining diversity in its broadest sense, including differences in gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, cultural origin, nationality, citizenship status, generational history, socioeconomic class, age, religion, political perspectives, physical and mental ability. As a community of those who study, teach, write about, advocate for and create art, we have committed our life’s work to learning-from, exploring-with and creating-towards our shared humanity.

We recognize that there is great work ahead of us all as we rebuild a more equitable and inclusive future. We reaffirm our commitment to diversity and inclusivity, while committing to know better and do better, to support our diverse community of artists, scholars and advocates. 

In solidarity.

– Shannon Benine, Associate Professor of Photography, Director of the Irene Carlson Gallery of Photography