Photography MFA

The Yale School of Art’s Photography program recognizes the capacity of lens-based photography to tell a personal story between form and content in a cultural moment when our shared environment is inundated with visual images. The program remains open to a larger variety of expressive means including digitally-based mediums; it is invested in challenging the parameters of these mediums while making pictures in the present moment. In the program, photography is seen as a form rich in history with an everchanging cultural currency that extends its vocabulary forward in new ways.

Photography is an inherently technological process, and students receive technical instruction in black-and-white and color photography as well as nonsilver processes and digital image production. Students work individually and in groups to receive weekly critiques and final reviews with faculty and visiting artists.

First Year	Second Year
Fall	Fall
ART 822 Practice and Production: 3 credits ART 842/843 Critique Panel: 6 credits ART 826/827 This Means Something: 3 credits ART 949, Critical and Professional Practices: 3 credits Total minimum credits for Fall Term: 15	ART 823 Critical Perspectives: 3 credits ART 844/845 Critique Panel: 6 credits Academic or Studio Electives: 3 credits Total minimum credits for Fall Term: 15

Spring	Spring
ART 842/843, Critique Panel: 6 credits ART 826/827, This Means Something: 3 credits Academic or Studio Electives: 6 credits Total minimum credits for Spring Term: 15	ART 825 What Makes a Book Work?: 3 credits ART 831 Picture Show: Thesis in Photography: 3 credits ART 844/845 Critique Panel: 6 credits Total minimum credits for Spring Term: 15

Portfolio Contents

Portfolios are submitted online as part of the online application. The portfolio submission interface will allow you to label each image with a title, a date of completion, the materials used, and a brief description of the work. Please do not embed your name in the titles of your work and limit titles to thirty (30) characters. Digital files must adhere strictly to the specifications outlined below.

Upload a total of twenty (20) still images and/or moving image files. A significant number of the images should represent work done within the last twelve months. If you are presenting both still and moving images, please present them in two groups with all still images followed by all moving images. Within these groups, place all still and/or moving image files in chronological order, starting with the oldest and ending with the most recent work. Chronological order of year is embedded in our system, and you will not be able to override it.

Portfolio Format

It’s critical that you do not format images in a presentation program (e.g., PowerPoint, Keynote, PDF). PDFs and presentation program formats are not viewable in our system; only the first page/slide will display. Do not include the title or caption in the image file, as it will decrease the viewable image area.

Media files as large as 5GB are supported, but please be advised that larger files will take longer to upload from your Internet connection and may stall if you are on a wireless connection or one that cannot sustain a connection for the necessary period of time. Uploaded documents (such as transcripts) may be PDF format and may contain no more than 75 pages.

The works in your portfolio will display in chronological order by year entered in the image data. This is an embedded feature in the system structure. For example, art #1 made in 2021, art #2 made in 2022, and art #3 made in 2024 will appear in that order. However, if you have multiple pieces created within a single year, you will be able to arrange the artwork in any order within that group of files.

Video files should be no longer than two minutes in length. If you upload a video that is longer than two minutes, it will automatically time out at two minutes. Please note that videos are considered as part of your selection of twenty files and should not be used as a method of showing examples of additional still images. Do not include titles or credits within the video files.

If you are primarily a video artist and wish to submit a longer video, you may post the video to your own Website and provide the link at the end of your statement. Note, however, that the admissions committee will not be in the position to review works of extensive length.

Video: .3g2, .3gp, .avi, .m2v, .m4v, .mkv, .mov, .mpeg, .mpg, .mp4, .mxf, .webm, .wmv
Audio: .aac, .m4a, .mka, .mp3, .oga, .ogg, .wav
Slide: .bmp, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tif, .tiff

Please note that while the Slate application portal lists .gif as an accepted file type, we have found that it does not work well in the system. Please avoid using .gif files.