BFA in Photography

The Photography degree program emphasizes the image itself, not the technique by which it is created, so you’ll study traditional, digital, and hybrid processes and learn how to use a wide variety of analog and digital cameras as well as lighting and image processing tools.

You’ll also round your education out with foundational courses in areas like drawing, design, and video production, as well as a wide range of general education and art history courses that will stimulate your curiosity, broaden your perspective, and inspire new creative expressions. KCAD’s flexible General Education Pathways model empowers you to direct your learning by exploring subjects you find most engaging and relevant.

While earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography, you will develop a comprehensive understanding of how analog and digital cameras function, gaining the ability to manipulate parameters and settings to translate your vision to a captured image. You’ll dive deep into core elements of the medium such as line, space, color value, emphasis, balance, and directional force, gaining the ability to unite them together in harmony. Essential tools such as lenses and lighting equipment will be emphasized to create the ideal conditions for image capture, and you’ll heighten your intuition to further recognize amazing photographic opportunities wherever and whenever they arise.

As you learn to effectively capture images, you’ll also become adept at translating them to a variety of display formats. You will learn your way around black and white and color darkrooms, discovering how to use age-old techniques to bring your images to life. The latest cutting-edge digital post-production techniques and digital large format printing technology will be taught concurrently, allowing you to emerge as a highly versatile and knowledgeable photographer who’s able to incorporate any combination of traditional and digital techniques to shoot in a broad range of styles. These approaches include, but are not limited to, conceptual/fine art, portraiture, action, candid, documentary, fashion, and product photography.

You’ll be able to not only capture and refine images, but critically analyze them as well. Through focused critical study of key contemporary and historic photographers and their work, you’ll understand how viewers interact with the different elements of a photograph, and be able to use that knowledge to be more intentional in your own practice.

Many photography degree programs place students in separate fine art and commercial tracks, but in KCAD’s Photography program, the two merge and inspire one another. You’ll receive a comprehensive education that will make you a more well-rounded, versatile photographer who approaches every image-making opportunity with an expanded sense of creative possibility.

You’ll graduate from the Photography degree program positioned to succeed in a wide variety of photography careers. Or, if you’re interested in continuing your education, you’ll be a prime candidate for pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree. Possible careers include:

• Fine Art Photographer
• Advertising Photographer
• Fashion Photographer
• Photojournalist
• Product Photographer
• Architectural Photographer
• Photography Image Editor
• Industrial Photographer
• Medical Photographer
• Wedding and Portrait Photographer
• Commercial Photographer
• Freelance Photographer
• Gallery/Studio Owner