
Photography Masters Theses
Graduate students in the Photography program develop visual and critical expertise through course work, seminars, independent studio work and critiques designed to provide a deep understanding of contemporary art practices and criticism. Working in personal studios, students have access to state-of-the-art technical facilities that allow for the exploration of film-based and digital photography, digital video and multimedia production.
In the final semester, MFA candidates focus on creating a comprehensive body of work under the guidance of a thesis committee. All Photography graduate students produce a thesis book that includes a written narrative and a body of visual work. They also participate in the RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition, a large-scale public show held annually.
Graduate Program Director: Brian Ulrich
These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Theses/Dissertations from 2022
Rememory, Jonathan Mark Jackson
The great delusion, Beth Johnston
Mason & Dixon: History and Identity in the Borderlands, Drew Leventhal
Bewildering narrative, Ali Newhard
Dead Letter Room, Allie Tsubota
Theses/Dissertations from 2021
Imaging "Interracial": performing racialized desire in "interracial" heterosexual hardcore pornography, Megan Christiansen
Becoming a precipice: the liminality of queer cruising, Chance DeVille
Wounds need air, Camilla Jerome
Martyr (in exile), Xinyi Mei
I just can't get you out of my head : frenetic vortex, animal as image - field notes (1989-2021), Steffanie A. Padilla
Fossil morphology, Leah Zhang
Theses/Dissertations from 2020
The knots on the underside of the carpet, Lily Colman
Amor fati, Keavy Handley-Byrne
First sweet truth, Jessina Lynn Leonard
These inadvertent marks, Thomas Wilder
Make yourself at home, Han Seok You
Theses/Dissertations from 2018
Between gods and animals : deconstructing heteronormative masculines pursuit to sustain power, Shawn Bush
Pretend power, Rosemary Engstrom
Theses/Dissertations from 2017
Naturally occurring form, Margaret Kristensen
Theses/Dissertations from 2016
Once there was there wasn't, Svetlana Bailey
Theses/Dissertations from 2015
Mid-, Elise Kirk
Theses/Dissertations from 2011
Seven Seas Without, Ambereen Siddiqui