Our international limited-residency graduate program allows you to pursue a professional degree while maintaining your career. This program is low residency and has a summer semester start. Application Priority Deadline - January 15.
Full Time
Rolling AdmissionMFA
60 Credits
Our program is an international, low-residency program directed by Michael Vahrenwald for engaged professionals investigating art, documentary practice, and the photo-based book.
This program is designed for both individuals with established experience in the field and recent graduates who wish to further their practice. Students can earn an MFA while maintaining a career and commitments at home. It differentiates itself from other programs by coupling intensive, on-campus sessions in the summer with domestic and international travel sessions in the fall and spring. Throughout the program, students work one-on-one with a faculty advisor.
Our low residency program couples intensive, on-campus sessions in the summer with traveling fall and spring sessions. During the summer, you convene with other students on campus for two weeks where you are provided focused interaction with renowned faculty. The fall and spring sessions take place off-campus in major cities around the world, where we visit studios, museums, galleries and invite local photographers, artists, publishers and curators to speak about their careers.
The structure of our program allows you to complete the program in two years (summer, fall, spring semesters each) plus two weeks (final third summer). In between contact periods, you’ll maintain communication with the Program Director and Thesis Advisor while completing assignments and developing a thesis project.
For more information, and to see a complete list of degree requirements, visit the Course Catalog.
Coursework involves a blend of darkroom work, digital workshops, bookmaking, photo history, and independent projects, which culminate in a thesis defense and exhibition. Below, you’ll find a few examples of the courses required to complete the photography MFA.
Advanced Photography I, II, III
Advanced Photography: Book
Digital Impact: The Truth of Photography
Independent Project
Seminar in Contemporary Issues I through IV
Thesis Defense and Exhibition
Tim Carpenter, J Carrier, Doug Lowell, Bryan Schutmaat, Chikara Umihara, Nicolas Silberfaden, Daniel Reuter, Dagmar Kolatschny, Morgan Ashcom, Felipe Russo, Jerome Ming, Lucy Helton, Tsar Fedorsky, Saleem Ahmed, Nicholas Pollack, Veronica Melendez, Robin Dahlberg, Matthew Casteel, Nathaniel Grann, Jenia Fridlyand, Matt Eich, Sanne Vils Axelsen, Virginia Wilcox, Andrew Waits, Tamara Reynolds, Kevin Kunstadt, Matthew Genitempo, Garrett Grove, Ben Brody, Rita Baunok, Antonis Theodoridis, Rick Schatzberg, Marshall Scheuttle, Ernesto Solana, Molly Peters, Alan Huck, Alex Christopher Williams, Stuart Richardson, Juan Orrantia, Erik Hagen, Eugénie Frerichs, Patrick Gookin, Jenny Sae Un Kim, Jenica Heintzelman, Chantal Anderson, Tracy Chandler, Patrick Tsai, Margaret Murphy, Emily Sheffer, Jeffrey Robins, Michael Lamb, Young Kim, Renee Harbers, Sebastian Sedecki, Austin Bryant, Whitney Knecht, Peggy Anderson, Anastasia Davis, Chloe Jones, Ruth Lauer-Manenti, Andrew McClees, Andy Richter, Ben Sklar, Charlie Weber
Coursework involves a blend of darkroom work, digital workshops, bookmaking, photo history, and independent projects, which culminate in a thesis defense and exhibition. Below, you’ll find a few examples of the courses required to complete the photography MFA.
Please contact the MFA Office at mfa@hartford.edu to set up an initial pre-interview conversation with Program Director Michael Michael Vahrenwald. Once invited to submit an application, please prepare the following items for upload to our online application portal:
**The MFA programs are not residential programs; international students cannot move to the U.S. for the duration of these programs, but rather are expected to be present in the U.S. during the dates of each residency.** International students participating in these Low-Residency MFA Programs are restricted in the length of time they can stay in the U.S. between the two (2) or three (3) in-person residency sessions each year of the program. Students may enter the U.S.. up to 30 days prior to each residency start date, and may depart up to 30 days after the end of each residency. Please contact mfa@hartford.edu for more information and confirmation of yearly residency dates.
Because of the prescribed curriculum, we calculate tuition on a full-year rate rather than per credit hour. Published tuition rates are tuition only, and do not include transportation, lodging, books, supplies, and other University fees. For the latest on the current year’s tuition and division of payments throughout the academic year, please see the current Grad Tuition Rates page, or reach out to us at mfa@hartford.edu.
MFA Photography, 2014
Saleem is based in Philadelphia, but has traveled widely for his photography books rooted in India, Bolivia, and Turkey. He struggled with finding his voice as a photographer, but found a mentor in program director Robert Lyons.
“When we went to Berlin for the first time, I shared a project where I finally figured out what I wanted to say. It was my first great critique, and it flipped the switch completely. That process took a long time, but it was awesome.”
The illustration program is designed specifically to meet the needs of practicing illustrators who maintain active, full-time professional careers. This program is low residency and starts in the Summer Semester. Application Priority Deadline - January 15th.