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.

infrared photo of a girl with two heads
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.

a man with short hair glasses and a tan sweater vest at the baltimore museum of art
portrait of a girl in front of an orange and pink circular background
multiple phones featuring different parts of a bunny put together to make a whole image of a bunny with a black background
a girl repeated multiple times going down the steps at the baltimore museum of art
a silhouetted girl in front of a blue light and black background
a girl with a drawing of a heart, astronaut, whale, and cartoon eyeball superimposed on her own eye

Film Photography in the Digital World

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

a girl and boy standing in front of a gas station wall with a window to their left
Photo of an adult and a child in a crosswalk from above
a girl laying stomach down on a white bed with her head on the pillow facing away from the camera, her hair is in a clip and her necklaces are worn backwards on her back
black and white close up of jewelry on a mirrored surface
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 courses that teaches non-traditional photographic techniques including Cyanotypes, Lumens, Polaroid Manipulations, and other processes.

apples cut in half with printed cyanotype images on their flesh
cyanotype of city street
a student's 3d abstract sculpture with purple and yellow prism-like designs
white flower cyanotype with purple background
cyanotype of an ocean wave and skyline overlayed on top of a silhouetted person
cyanotype of leaves and flowers on a blue and tan background

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.​

Color image diptych, image on the right painting of woman wearing red on a green couch, image on left a photographic replica created by a student
Color image diptych, image on the right painting of woman standing in front of a teach with a violin, image on left a photographic replica created by a student
Color image diptych, image on the right painting of a man wearing a black hat with his hand on his chin, image on left a photographic replica created by a student
a woman bending backwards in front of a white background
a hand holding a blue necklace in front of a red background
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.

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.

a woman standing behind a man leaning on a counter
a street drain with trash and a wooden board with the text "Roby N Glenn always will be in my heart" written on it
a dog in the foreground and girl sitting in a field in the background
an overflowing mailbox
a woman smiling standing inside a food truck
a doorway with a sign above it "bar"

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.

two hands covered in honey in front of a blue background
a window curtain with shadows of a window frame, in black and white
an abstract pink and purple color image of a person
color cyanotype image of two people laying in a grass field
color abstract image of a city street
Color close up image of two men sleeping next to each other in bed