Considering earning an MFA in Photography

[mshchem]

Tough decision.

So expensive.

I loved college

Graduate degree required to be a moderator on Photrio

 

[MattKing]

Graduate degree required to be a moderator on Photrio

Nope.
But patience and perseverance may be required for both

 

[DREW WILEY]

Koraks, I treasured my aunt's advice. She had been highly honored as one of the recipients of numerous NEA and
WPA endowments, and painted more murals listed on the National Historic Registry than any other person in US history. But more than most, she also knew the games being played by academia, and just how much ideological complications can get in the way. I am VERY glad I never made art a college major. Too much sheer silliness and poser mentality. I did study several other subjects in depth. I learned photography from a camera, not from any teacher, although I did have the advantage of seeing some very fine work, as well as a bit of technical help from my older brother, who was a commercial photographer.

 

[koraks]

Was an academic education accessible to you? I imagine that also plays a role. It's not necessarily easy to get in for a variety of reasons.

From my own perspective: when I was (very!) young, the possibility of an arts education (specifically, conservatory, so music, not photography/visual arts) was explicitly on the table. Even at that young age, I decided against it, mostly because I felt I just didn't have the kind of dedication and motivation to put in the multiple hours of daily practice required. I don't recall anyone advising against this route, though - to the contrary. People were supportive and stimulating. It was me who pulled the plug on it. I don't regret it; I think I was right back then and I just wasn't made of the right stuff for that line of work. I'm saying this because the factors involved are diverse and it's kind of easy to point at supposed shortcomings of the system so as to take away focus from other aspects involved.

What topics did your aunt have a PhD in, again? Having 3 PhD's is kind of unique!

 

[prado333]

There are really only two reasons to get an MFA that will help you financially. If you want to teach and if you want to go the gallery route. Your success in either will highly depend on the school you go to. At this point there really are only a few schools that will help and they aren't in Texas. You also need a lot of talent as well. Photography is a talent just like many other things. You have to ask yourself if you have the talent to do it, otherwise an MFA is just a waste of money. On the other hand, if you are really talented, then you won't need an MFA, it will just help in opening doors. You don't even need an MFA to teach in that case. I've known several people that were recruited into it. I did a short stint at a large university myself.

If you want to be a photographer then you are better off not going to school for it and just learning about it in the real world. Get a job as an assistant to someone who is really good doing the kind of photography you want to do. That will open lots of doors itself.

Good luck.

I think this is the best advise you can receive. Especially in USA where are the best of the best. Make a top ten list of photograhers you admire and apply for an intership or similar.

 

[ic-racer]

I got my MFA in Fine Arts, rather than in photography.
Though my thesis show was almost all photography with some videos.

I got the degree mostly for myself while I was trying to figure out what to do with my life.

I had wanted to continue the photographic work and ideas I developed in my undergraduate education.

I was a graduate, teaching associate in the art department, so the degree didn’t really cost me anything. In fact I actually got a stipend while working on the degree.

 

[pamphoto]

Which doors do you hope this will help open for you? Sorry, I can't comment, but it might help others with the required experience to make their answers more concrete/applicable to your case. E.g. I can imagine there's a difference between creative and commercial types of doors.

I am not sure. That was one of the reasons I am asking. I know teaching will be available, and the possibility of receiving more grants and the like ( as I was told by a MFA). I am looking at my options moving forward as I do not wish to work a retail lab job the rest of my life.

 

[pamphoto]

I was there at the end of Henry's career and he was very bitter. He just got tired of seeing his students end up in low paying jobs. He always wanted students to study business. By that time Reg Herron who was a dear friend of mine was taking over Henry's duties.

Studying Business makes sense. Universities should have a creative business degree option. I wish I had taken some business classes when I got my BFA years ago.

 

[pamphoto]

If you would like to teach in the US, high school or college, the MFA will be valuable if not essential to be considered for a position. A position teaching art is very competitive unless you have already made a big impression in your field.
Its hard to say whether it would be a good investment without knowing more about your specific goals.

I guess I am asking to see what the options are. My goal is to not work at low paying retail lab for the rest of my life. If I have to support myself and my children if something happens to my spouse, then I need something else. I know the education earned will be valuable for personal development, I am hoping it will also open more opportunities somehow.

 

[pamphoto]

I think this is the best advise you can receive. Especially in USA where are the best of the best. Make a top ten list of photograhers you admire and apply for an intership or similar.

Interesting Idea. I may do that.

 

[pamphoto]

I got my MFA in Fine Arts, rather than in photography.
Though my thesis show was almost all photography with some videos.

I got the degree mostly for myself while I was trying to figure out what to do with my life.

I had wanted to continue the photographic work and ideas I developed in my undergraduate education.

I was a graduate, teaching associate in the art department, so the degree didn’t really cost me anything. In fact I actually got a stipend while working on the degree.

Maybe this is what I am doing. Trying to figure out what to do with what is left of my life. I don't want to work at a retail print lab for the rest of it, I want to do something worth while and to make a living, not just supplemental income.

 

[warden]

Hello,
(I am not sure if this is the best section for this post, as nothing seemed correct.)

I am considering earning my MFA in photography. I am thinking this will open more doors for me. For example, I'll be able to teach. There are two universities nearby that I will be able to drive to to work on it. Both offer a three year program. I am hoping to be able to have a professional paying career at some point, and this is what I am thinking would offer the best opportunities.

What are some thoughts from those of you who do have an MFA? Why did you pursue it? What do you wish you had known prior to attending? What opportunities did/does having an MFA open for you?

Thank you for your insight!

A practical first step, assuming you don’t want to relocate for a teaching job, would be to contact both local universities and see if they require terminal degrees to teach. Many do, but not all.

Also be aware that many universities are moving jobs away from expensive tenure positions to relatively cheaper adjunct positions. I know adjuncts with MFAs that are overworked and underpaid, and are not happy with the lifestyle. (No insurance, no tenure protections, no control over scheduling, stuck at the bottom rung of the career ladder, etc). You have to really love teaching to go this route.

 

[Carnie Bob]

Hello,
(I am not sure if this is the best section for this post, as nothing seemed correct.)

I am considering earning my MFA in photography. I am thinking this will open more doors for me. For example, I'll be able to teach. There are two universities nearby that I will be able to drive to to work on it. Both offer a three year program. I am hoping to be able to have a professional paying career at some point, and this is what I am thinking would offer the best opportunities.

What are some thoughts from those of you who do have an MFA? Why did you pursue it? What do you wish you had known prior to attending? What opportunities did/does having an MFA open for you?

Thank you for your insight!

I believe it cannot hurt to have your MFA , in todays world it will open many opportunities for you, In Canada its pretty much mandatory to have your MFA in the current Photo Climate. I do not have one and I am pretty happy with my decision to follow my path , if I was looking for grants for projects I think its a no brainer. What I would not do is break the bank to get one though.

 

[btaylor]

Trying to figure out what to do with what is left of my life.

I think this is the reason to get that MFA.
On the surface my career after art school had little to do with my degree, but had everything to do with my approach to art and life in the decades that followed. I can’t measure the economic influence it had, but more than 40 years later I use that experience every day and it makes me happy.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Most of the serious coaching and help going on in this area is via guild apprenticeships and non-academic philanthropic opportunities for younger people who show exceptional promise, and mostly in lithographic and high-end printmaking applications which are only peri-photographic. Elementary darkroom skills are being taught in some of the junior colleges and high shools, and small private universities. Most of those teachers are probably on part-time status at best. UCB has a highly-funded MFA program, but a lot of that, including its new complex, is centered around alternative cinema. That itself is a crowded, extremely competitive field, with plenty of its own starving artists hoping for a lucky break, degree or not.

The mainstay private school of commercial photography and digital animation financially collapsed about a year ago. The arrival of giant AI ventures literally in the same neighborhood would been the final nail in the coffin, if it that school had hung on any longer. It did great for a couple decades; but everything is different now. Around here, digital animation pros are dime a dozen. They get paid a lot when working, then get laid off frequently too, as tech shifts. And now many of them are doomed by Ai, probably most.

Someone wants an MFA, fine. It should be for personal interest reasons, and it will cost you dearly just like any other degree these days. But whether it really improves how anyone sees and photographs the world is another story. I would have found that kind of path unbearably claustrophobic and ideologically sycophantic. Even most of my science education was independent study encouraged by pioneers in their fields who had bucked the rules themselves, and thought outside the box. But the thought of working in academia is not my cup of tea - way too much endless mini-politics and backstabbing rivalry in that, striving to attain tenure and so forth. I got turned off when a couple of my personal youthful research papers were stolen and then published by a University phD under his own name, and then learned from friends inside the system that plagiarism by academic higher-ups was fairly common.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Maybe this is what I am doing. Trying to figure out what to do with what is left of my life. I don't want to work at a retail print lab for the rest of it, I want to do something worth while and to make a living, not just supplemental income.

What's wrong with the teaching profession? You can combine it with getting your MFA and still have a secure career with a pension at the end. My wife didn;t start until around 36 years old and retired at 61 with a nice pension from NYC. Teachers in the bigger cities like Houston, Dallas or Austin start at $60K-$64K, substantially less at 40-45K in the small rural districts but usually pay a lot more just to attract talent. Pensions are caluclated below with average from the highest five years.
Years of Service X 2.3% X Average Salary (average of five highest years)=Annual Pension. So let;s say you average $70k and work 20 years. The pension would be $32,200 per annum. $40,250 if you work 25 years. Plus Social Security, another $25K annually.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

One other thing about teaching. You'll have a lot of time off to pursue photography. You only work 187 days. You;re off the entire summer months of July and August, plus 3-4 weeks during the school teaching year, plus regular holidays. Some Texas districts are moving to four day instructional weeks at the same pay.

 

[Arthurwg]

I suggest that you get your MFA at Yale or RISD. Those connections would help.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Except that the cost of living in the big cities is skyrocketing, and you're stuck there (gosh, who would want to live in Dallas or Houston?), and getting those positions to begin with can be difficult; plus the education debt itself is vasty higher that it was in my day. And in the current climate, the plug is being pulled on university funding in numerous categories on a quite fickle basis. There is far more money and opportunities to be had via industrial and tech apprenticeships with no need of a higher degree. My wife used here UC degree just as a stepping stone to an entirely different career, then flipped the income of that into yet another degree and new career path. I went more the hardscrabble path, but retired with good benefits, and in the meantime, did my own kind of photography without needing to bend to any academic protocols.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Except that the cost of living in the big cities is skyrocketing, and you're stuck there (gosh, who would want to live in Dallas or Houston?), and getting those positions to begin with can be difficult; plus the education debt itself is vasty higher that it was in my day. And in the current climate, the plug is being pulled on university funding in numerous categories on a quite fickle basis. There is far more money and opportunities to be had via industrial and tech apprenticeships with no need of a higher degree. My wife used here UC degree just as a stepping stone to an entirely different career, then flipped the income of that into yet another degree and new career path. I went more the hardscrabble path, but retired with good benefits, and in the meantime, did my own kind of photography without needing to bend to any academic protocols.

I was referring to teaching in primary public schools.

 

[warden]

(gosh, who would want to live in Dallas or Houston?)

Maybe the sixteen million people who live in those two metro areas like living in their fine cities. The OP is from Texas, btw.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

What's wrong with the teaching profession? You can combine it with getting your MFA and still have a secure career with a pension at the end. My wife didn;t start until around 36 years old and retired at 61 with a nice pension from NYC. Teachers in the bigger cities like Houston, Dallas or Austin start at $60K-$64K, substantially less at 40-45K in the small rural districts but usually pay a lot more just to attract talent. Pensions are caluclated below with average from the highest five years.
Years of Service X 2.3% X Average Salary (average of five highest years)=Annual Pension. So let;s say you average $70k and work 20 years. The pension would be $32,200 per annum. $40,250 if you work 25 years. Plus Social Security, another $25K annually.

There's nothing wrong with teaching. But the world you're describing doesn't really exist any more.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

If you still want to get an MFA, after all this advice, I would look into a low-residency program (one, and only one, example is Bard College. There are more but I can't think of any others off the top of my head). That will help with the cost, at least. Low-residency programs are typically a relatively short period of time on campus per year, with the rest being self-directed in consultation with your advisors.

 

[Pieter12]

What's wrong with the teaching profession? You can combine it with getting your MFA and still have a secure career with a pension at the end. My wife didn;t start until around 36 years old and retired at 61 with a nice pension from NYC. Teachers in the bigger cities like Houston, Dallas or Austin start at $60K-$64K, substantially less at 40-45K in the small rural districts but usually pay a lot more just to attract talent. Pensions are caluclated below with average from the highest five years.
Years of Service X 2.3% X Average Salary (average of five highest years)=Annual Pension. So let;s say you average $70k and work 20 years. The pension would be $32,200 per annum. $40,250 if you work 25 years. Plus Social Security, another $25K annually.

It can be difficult to live on $60-64K gross a year in most large cities.

 

[4season]

I am not sure. That was one of the reasons I am asking. I know teaching will be available, and the possibility of receiving more grants and the like ( as I was told by a MFA). I am looking at my options moving forward as I do not wish to work a retail lab job the rest of my life.

If this is ultimately about money and security, consider addressing those more directly. Even a modest job can look very different when you're there because you want to be, not because you need the money.