About the Program

The University of Florida offers an innovative blend of provocative and experimental approaches to photography in the setting of a large, traditional, and diversified state research university. As one of the most established programs of graduate and undergraduate study of photography in the United States, we draw on substantial faculty strengths in photographic processes as well as an unusual faculty expertise in the broad field of visual inquiry, critical theory, relational art, video, sculpture and performance.

Undergraduate

Students are encouraged to develop their personal artwork through a constructive dialogue that builds on the particular strengths of the student's interests, faculty research and the institution's resources. We particularly encourage work which engages the future trajectories of the image and related media practices, which develops out of an informed inquiry into the histories, theories, and practices of photography as it pervades and structures culture. 

Graduate

Graduate students are expected to conduct an individual program of research, informed through group critique, studio visits, and individual faculty supervision.  All students combine photographic media and concepts with other forms of inquiry, including time based, performative, thematic research and theoretical modeling.  Accordingly, we view our cooperative relationships, with other areas of the School of Art + Art History such as sculpture, painting, printmaking and performance, as well as those outside the area such as English, Film Studies, and Architecture, as significant resources, and believe in fostering the possibility of interdisciplinary exchange. The Program also stresses questions of industry, institution, dissemination, and participation of and with the media image. While students are encouraged to utilize traditional venues for the display of their work, we also strongly emphasize the importance of seeking out or creating alternative exhibitions in public spaces. We understand public space to be not only site specific, but also as a space of intervention. We also support collaborative partnerships between students, or partnerships a student may develop with an outside party or industry.