Johns Hopkins UniversityEST. 1876

America’s First Research University

Photography

Center for Visual Arts > Courses > Photography

The Center for Visual Arts provides diverse photography courses tailored to students across all proficiency levels, from novice to advanced. These comprehensive courses foster an environment where participants are urged to explore innovative approaches to artistic expression by utilizing digital, traditional, and experimental forms while gaining insight into the medium’s historical evolution and contemporary trends.

Please choose the relevant course title to see recent student work from any course.

Digital Photography I

An introductory course that teaches the fundamental techniques of image making using digital camera technology and editing software.

  • AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Projects and Methods (FA6)
  • EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3)
Girl with brown hair with water droplits on plastic film in front of her face
4 women of varying ages standing in a line facing the camera wearing brown
a girl's face obstructed by a glass of water, in black and white
a blindfolded man wearing a suit in front of a boarded up house
hair strands in a blue field
person's legs with orange pants and black boots standing on a picnic blanket with candles, plates of food, a picnic basket, book, tea

Smartphone Photography

An introductory course that explores creative approaches for making visually compelling photographs using smartphone technology.

  • AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Projects and Methods (FA6)
  • EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3)
a silhouetted girl in front of a blue light and black background
a girl with black hair looking right and a overlayed image of her face looking forward
multiple phones featuring different parts of a bunny put together to make a whole image of a bunny with a black background
a girl copying the pose of a statue of a girl crossing her arms in front of her face
a girl with a drawing of a heart, astronaut, whale, and cartoon eyeball superimposed on her own eye
a shadow of a person holding one and up and the other on their hip

Film Photography in the Digital World

An introductory course teaches the use of traditional 35mm film cameras and how each film stock has its own set of textural, tonal, and color characteristics.

  • AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Projects and Methods (FA6)
  • EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3)
a girl and boy standing in front of a gas station wall with a window to their left
silhouettes of four people standing in front of a mural of a mans face
a women with black hair resting on her arm on a table with her other arm out and her hand is held by someone else out of scene
girl poking her face out from behind a comforter
a cement pyramid-shaped building with a cloudy sky in the background
a girl sitting on the ground with her arm around the leg of a girl wearing a white dress

Experimental Photography: Light-Sensitive & Hands-on Processes

An introductory course that teaches non-traditional photographic techniques, including Cyanotypes, Lumens, Polaroid Manipulations, and other processes.

  • AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Projects and Methods (FA6)
  • EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3)
apples cut in half with printed cyanotype images on their flesh
Photographs of peoples faces printed inside contact lens boxes
a student's 3d abstract sculpture with purple and yellow prism-like designs
folded book with images printed on top with the cyanotype process
alternative image process print of dried flowers
multiple cyanotype images put together around a cyanotype silhouette of a body

From Still Life to the Figurative: Photographic Lighting Techniques

An intermediate course that teaches photographic lighting, design, composition, and the use of color in images.​

  • AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Projects and Methods (FA6)
  • EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3)
Color image diptych, image on the left painting of woman wearing red on a green couch, image on right a photographic replica created by a student
Color image diptych, image on the left painting of a woman wearing a blue skirt with a yellow long sleeve shirt holding a fan, image on right a photographic replica created by a student
Color image diptych, image on the left painting of a man wearing a black hat with his hand on his chin, image on right a photographic replica created by a student
a hand holding a blue necklace in front of a red background
a black and white image of a girls face behind a blurred water dripped glass surface
a girl holding a basket of lemons, wearing a yellow jacket and blue jeans in front of a blue and yellow background

Digital Photography II

An intermediate course that expands on the conceptual approaches of image making, using advanced digital capture and image manipulation.

  • AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Projects and Methods (FA6)
  • EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3)
a longhand math word problem written over an inverted image of a man with a blue face
a hand holding a picture of a hand in front of a white background
a girl in a dark long sleeve shirt and white skirt sitting on a rocky hill with the text "Begins to dance to the sounds of the sea, continues despite the melancholy note" written in white on the bottom half of the image
a girl duplicated multiple times staring up at the sun, in black and white
buildings with a large mural of a woman nursing a child and graffitti
a shadow of a person in a dorm room with the text "Haunted dorm" written in white at the center of the image and the text "14 october. A pair of plug-in headphones vanished. No further info. Roommate sick the next day." written in red at the bottom of the image

Documentary Photography: The Stories We Tell

An intermediate course that challenges students to tell their own stories through the photographic medium of their choice.

  • AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4), Projects and Methods (FA6)
  • EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3), Engagement with Society (FA4)
blurred images of light
a dog in the foreground and girl sitting in a field in the background
a man in an office wearing a black beanie
a woman smiling standing inside a food truck
a yellow stained glass window in a dark lit bathroom
an overflowing mailbox

The Photographic Portfolio: Developing a Long-term Project

An advanced course that guides students through a semester-long photography project aligned with their interests in photography.

  • AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Projects and Methods (FA6)
  • EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3)
two hands covered in honey in front of a blue background
an abstract pink and purple color image of a person
Two hands clasped together holding a shower curtain with a leaf print
a window curtain with shadows of a window frame, in black and white
a man with short hair, a t shirt, and pmats laying eyes closed on a set of steps
Color close up image of two men sleeping next to each other in bed