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mfa applications now open

USU Photo is now accepting applications to our three-year MFA program.

Curriculum is focused on individual studio practice and augmented by seminars in art history, professional practice, pedagogy, and studio-based research along with opportunities for interdisciplinary study and collaboration across the university.

Competitive assistantship stipends and tuition waivers are available to select candidates, who may serve as teaching assistants in their first year and teach their own undergraduate course each semester of their second and third year.

Each MFA candidate is provided a private darkroom and studio/office space, a BenQ PhotoVue monitor, 24-hour access to photography facilities, longterm camera checkout, and annual consumables budget.

For degree and application info, visit the usu photo mfa page here.

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fall ‘23 analog class opens “learning / process” at usu projects gallery

Dec 4, 2023






USU Photo students in the Fall 2023 ART4825 Analog Photography class opened “LEARNING / PROCESS” this week in the USU Projects Gallery.

From the exhibition statement: 

The large format view camera is remarkable for its simultaneous simplicity and complexity. While not made of much more than a lens, dark box, and ground glass, through its various movements and controls a photographer can transform even the most ordinary subjects.  Seeing through the camera is magical; to step under the dark cloth one enters a world viewed upside down and backwards through a milky ground glass, light bends and refracts effervescent while focus tacks and falls from sharpest detail to dreamiest swirls. But it’s not all romance. Translating these magical images to film, and then from film to print, demands strict dedication to process and with it great amounts of trial and error, time, persistence, and patience.  

Such is the journey the ART 4825 Analog Photography class embarked upon this semester. From one of the medium’s earliest and most arduous processes—the 19th century wet-plate collodion process—to developing large format film and printing hand-crafted silver gelatin images in the darkroom, students have traced nearly 200 years of the history of photography. Yet their work isn’t only concerned with the antiquated and traditional, nor process just for process’ sake.  Instead, students have combined the historical methods with contemporary technologies and concerns— visually experimenting in the darkroom, in the studio, and in the field, scanning plates and film, manipulating pixels and tones, and shifting from the handheld to large scale. Their visual research has resulted in a variety of expressive images that elevate the mundane, softly glimpse quiet intimacies, confront the nuanced complexities of family and belonging, and boldly embrace the spectrum of identity and gender performance.

The student artists have shared the works in “LEARNING / PROCESS” salon-style without designating who made which picture, welcoming us into a space resembling more of a photographer’s studio than a traditional gallery space. Works on view include tintypes, contact and proof prints, silver gelatin images, and large scale inkjet prints, each picture serving as part of an active conversation reflecting the students’ semester-long dialogue and collective journey of learning and discovery.

-- Jared Ragland, Assistant Professor

“LEARNING / PROCESS” runs through Dec. 8. The USU Projects Gallery is located on the ground floor of the USU FAV building and is open Mon-Fri, 9-5. 

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bfa senior kenzli todd opens “fledgling” at usu projects gallery

Nov 27, 2023

Kenzli Todd, from the series, “Fledgling”

USU Photo BFA senior Kenzli Todd opened “Fledgling” this week in the USU Projects Gallery.

The exhibition features photographs from Todd’s ongoing BFA thesis project which delicately interweaves oblique self portraiture, quiet interiors, and suburban and rural landscapes with Todd’s own poetry to consider the vulnerabilities of the journey into adulthood, moments of change, and pursuit of meaningful connection.

“Fledgling” will run through Dec. 1. The USU Projects Gallery is located on the ground floor of the USU FAV building and is open Mon-Fri, 9-5. 

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professor ragland on assignment for the washington post

Oct 31, 2023



A scientist releases a bat Sept. 28-29 at Minnetonka Cave in Idaho as a team of researchers undertakes a vaccination expedition. Photo by Jared Ragland for The Washington Post

Professor Jared Ragland has been on assignment for The Washington Post at Minnetonka Cave in the Cache National Forest in southern Idaho, where scientists are vaccinating bats in an effort to fight white-nose syndrome. Story by Dino Grandoni/Photo Editor Claudia Hernandez.

Read: Slaying the vampire that is killing bats at The Washington Post or view a slideshow feature on the @PostClimate feed on Instagram.  

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bfa senior lele bonizzi opens projects gallery exhibition with recent SARG project work

Sept 18, 2023


Lele Bonizzi, Ānanda Mārga through the Lens of Malta: a Photographic Exploration, USU Projects Gallery

This summer, Photo BFA senior Lele Bonizzi was awarded a Summer Arts Research Grant to travel to Malta and explore how photography might engage with and promote social mobility, bring visibility to non-profit organizations, and embody USU’s Think-Care-Act values. In Malta Bonizzi worked with several aid organizations including Centru Tbexbix, a non-profit that works with local children and incorporates the principles of Ānanda Mārga, a philosophy that promotes social equality through practices of humanitarian service. In just four weeks’ time, Bonizzi made over 10,000 photographs and has seen their work used by Centru Tbexbix, as well as organizations including the Malta SPCA, and SPARK15.

Bonizzi presented their SARG project at the 2023 USU Caine College of the Arts Faculty Retreat, the annual fall CCA Department of Art + Design Undergraduate Assembly, and created a solo exhibition, “Ānanda Mārga through the Lens of Malta: a Photographic Exploration,” featuring 65 images at the USU Projects Gallery. The exhibition runs Sept. 18-29.