The Department of Photography + Film aims to facilitate a comprehensive artistic, technical and intellectual understanding and use of the mediums of photography and film; to provide a rigorous education in the arts, specifically in photographic and moving image media, and a broad education in other academic subjects; to foster a climate that inspires creativity, intellectual curiosity, freedom of expression and critical-thinking. The department fosters a pluralistic approach that allows both faculty and students to expand the traditional boundaries of the respective media and engage in multidisciplinary practice.
Degree Programs
The Work
Eggs
Walker Moore
George eats a lot of eggs.
Shadows of the Past
Teairrah Green
In the wake of a forgotten 20th-century genocide, Shadows of the Past explores the fragments of memory, identity, and resistance left behind by the Herero and Nama peoples after German colonial forces carried out one of history’s earliest acts of racial extermination. Weaving together personal testimony, archival imagery, and experimental forms such as dance and collage, the film meditates on generational trauma and the struggle to be heard. As debates over Germany’s recent reparations deal expose deep political and emotional rifts, Shadows of the Past asks what it means to seek justice when history has tried to erase you.
Love is Familiar
Meaghen Flynn
Mary Magdalene
Spencer Strebe
Photo Junior, Spencer Strebe, had his work, Mary Magdalene, featured in the Undergraduate Juried Exhibition
Untitled
Marianna Davis
Cosplayers
Adele Luck
Photo Senior Adele Luck's work titled "Cosplayers" explores what she calls the “internet state of mind” by showing the evolution of online subcultures and their influence on contemporary American culture. By photographing these cosplayers and in-person meetups, she aims to showcase virtual identities and cultures that interact and manifest within the physical.
Cereal
Taylor Freeman
Photo Senior, Taylor Freeman, had her Senior Thesis 1, Cereal, be featured at the 2025 VCUarts Undergraduate Juried Exhibition
Bonfire
Aija Bowditch
Photo Senior, Aija Bowditch, was selected to feature her work, Bonfire, in the 2025 Undergraduate Juried Exhibition
Platinum-palladium prints
Lars Mattingly
The Paradox of Value
David Guarnizo
Our Faculty
are Teachers and Doers
Questions?
Get in touch with Photography + Film
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Stephanie R Thulin
Chair, Photography + Film
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Tesora Molina-Garcia
Graduate Director, Photography + Film
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Sarah Midkiff
Coordinator of Facilities, Equipment and Technology
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