United States

Columbia College Chicago

Photography (MFA)

University degrees: Postgraduate

Course length: two years (60 credits)

Refine your creative vision in Columbia College Chicago’s selective Photography Master of Fine Arts program. Our faculty of award-winning photographers will guide you through this two-year program as you build a sophisticated body of work that you’ll exhibit in public venues. You’ll have access to our advanced photography and fine art facilities, including graduate studio space, a digital imaging lab, a commercial lighting studio, and darkrooms. In a supportive critique setting, you’ll share your work with our faculty members, guest curators, and visiting artists. You’ll make professional connections through our partnerships with the Museum of Contemporary Photography and local galleries, museums, and studios.

Columbia College Chicago’s MFA Photography program doesn’t focus on one school of thought. Our students bring diverse perspectives and experiences to the program and continuously challenge, inform, and support each other.

In the Classroom


Chelsea Darter MFA ’18, “Prairie Grass”

Several features of the Photography MFA program at Columbia College Chicago are unique. Here’s what you can expect:

  • In addition to traditional image-making, Columbia students work on documentaries, videos, collages, and installations. You’ll take a Graduate Seminar course every semester with other MFA Photography students, refining and discussing each others’ artistic practices. The seminar courses often form communities of artists who challenge one another to consider new ideas in their work.
  • The Graduate Seminar course is coupled with a Graduate Forum course, which you will take every semester. Led by faculty, the forum allows for a flexible range of learning experiences, which include field trips to galleries and museums, studio visits with prominent Chicago artists, discussions with visiting artists, workshops, and ongoing critical dialogues.
  • You’ll take required courses in photography, video, history, theory, and criticism. You’ll also choose electives on subjects such as the portrait, bookmaking, and documentary. Our close relationship with the Art and Art History Department means you can take a wide range of courses in subjects such as performance and installation.
  • You’ll make connections in the Chicago photography community and meet with guest curators, visiting artists, and other professionals we invite to critique graduate work each semester.
  • Your primary focus will be your artistic practice, but you’ll also gain practical skills for becoming a working artist and begin charting your career.

Graduate Faculty

The MFA program is supported by a full-time faculty of renowned photographers representing diverse styles and philosophies. Faculty members have made substantial contributions to contemporary photography and have exhibited their work at venues such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, the Whitney Museum in New York City, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Faculty members take their roles as mentors seriously. They will critique your work regularly and provide guidance as you chart your professional career.

Programs, Courses, Workshops