Western New Mexico University offers photography courses at the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels. While here, students will explore the various processes of image making from traditional darkroom black and white photography to digital imaging.

The foundation of the program begins with Photo I, which is a digital photography course. Here, you will learn camera settings and creative camera controls. More importantly though, this class is about seeing: actively searching out the visual attributes of your subject; composition; the energy of color; and, the emotional differences between B&W photography and Color photography. Adobe Lightroom is the editing program for this class, which is intuitive to learn and hugely flexible for creative editing. Intermediate and Advanced Photography take you into the traditional darkroom with film. These classes are designed to explore traditional processes and materials such as silver based images, toned images, alternative processes and hand coloring images. For those who wish to continue with digital photography the program offers Photoshop Techniques, which can be taken with or without the traditional photography classes. The entire photography program is designed to have the student build his or her personal style while producing tight, coherent portfolios of their work.

Our strength, in the Expressive Arts department at WNMU, is to open pathways of discovery for the student, to encourage him or her to tap into the wellspring of their creativity and develop a strong visual voice. We strive for our students to grow as they explore and learn new skills, nestled, here in the foothills of the Gila National forest.

Western New Mexico University photography students have gone on to pursue graduate studies and careers as educators, studio assistants and commercial photographers.

For more information about our Photography Program, contact Jim Pendergast:
jim.pendergast@wnmu.edu
575-538-6197