©Jason Lazarus, Faculty

Each installment of In Focus: The MFA Review highlights a different MFA program for photographic artists, offering readers a concise overview of its identity, curriculum, faculty, student experience, financial support, and post-graduation outcomes. It also serves as a showcase of the creative work produced by faculty, students, and alumni. Rather than functioning as rankings or endorsements, these features are intended as practical starting points—tools to help prospective students compare programs, identify what matters most to them, and make more informed decisions about their graduate education. While certain details shared in these articles may change over time, my hope is that these program snapshots offer a clear sense of what each represents in the present moment.

Thank you to Marcus DeSieno for completing this interview and compiling all the images/resources!

Institution name: University of South Florida

Degree Title: MFA in Studio Art

Location: Tampa, FL

Link to Program Page: https://www.usf.edu/arts/art/academics/mfa/index.aspx

Link to Application Page: https://www.usf.edu/arts/art/apply/mfa-admission.aspx

Instagram: @artschoolusf

©Jason Lazarus, Faculty

Tell us a little about your program. How would you define its scope and purpose?

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree at the University of South Florida’s School of Art & Art History is a fully funded, three-year idea-centered program that encourages broad media exploration, interdisciplinary projects, and engagement with current theoretical and cultural issues. Nationally ranked, our program provides a dynamic atmosphere with ongoing opportunities for dialogue with the faculty, other committed graduate students and a world-class program of visiting artists, critics and scholars invested in your artistic growth.

©Marcus DeSieno, Faculty

What would you say makes your program special?

USF is a place to experiment and grow. Nothing is off limits. Our program is idea-driven as students move freely between conceptual frameworks and material research methodologies to develop a unique voice. Photography itself is rapidly changing, and this is a program for artists interested in pushing the boundaries of the photographic medium further into the 21st century.

What also distinguishes USF is the combination of rigorous critical discourse and a supportive studio culture. Graduate students work closely with faculty mentors while benefiting from a vibrant community of artists across disciplines. Students receive significant individual attention and develop meaningful relationships with faculty and peers. These relationships often continue into the years to come – we aim to develop artists to become our future peers and network across the country and internationally.

The artists invited to engage our school of art and art history are globally preeminent cultural producers that provide unique opportunities for graduate students to collaborate with. USF is home to Graphicstudio, one of the nation’s premier artist workshops and publishers. For over fifty years, Graphicstudio has collaborated with leading contemporary artists to produce innovative editions, installations, and public artworks. Its presence on campus gives MFA students unique access to internationally recognized artists, exhibitions, and a world-class collection of contemporary art, enriching the intellectual and creative life of the program. Many of our graduate students have done graduate assistantships there and worked hand-in-hand with artists like Anastasia Samoylova, Christian Marclay, and Mark Dion.

Additionally, one of the major strengths of studying at USF is access to the distinguished Kennedy Family Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series. The series brings internationally recognized artists, curators, critics, scholars, and cultural leaders to campus throughout the academic year for public lectures, studio visits, workshops, and individual meetings with graduate students. Recent critics and photographers include: Alec Soth, Carmen Winant, Coco Fusco, Dakota Mace, James Elkins, Matthew Leifheit, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Sama Alshaibi, Sheida Soleimani, Stephanie Syjuco, and Whitney Hubbs.

This program is a place for creators. Our graduate students are not only regularly exhibiting actively on campus, but off campus as well, both locally and nationally, including the Ringling Museum of Art, Tampa Museum of Art, Art Basel in Miami, the MFA St. Pete, Sarasota Art Museum, and more.

©Marcus DeSieno, Faculty

What specialized facilities are available for student use (i.e. darkroom, lighting studio, print lab)?

Our MFA students enjoy individual studios that provide both privacy and access to learn from one another, with twenty-four-hour access to facilities. We have a well-equipped building with specialized equipment and spaces in animation, ceramics, sculpture (traditional and digital fabrication), photography, printmaking, and video. Our grad students have access to everything.

We offer private darkrooms in the photo area for graduate students in addition to our gang darkroom and dedicated alt process darkroom along with a UV exposure unit. Our media cage is stocked with the latest gear from 35mm, medium format, and large format cameras to top of the line digital cameras, lenses, video cameras, projectors, and lighting equipment. We have a large lighting studio that is used heavily by our grads.

Our digital lab is robust and includes multiple 44” Epson wide format printers and Mac computers for students to edit and produce work. Printing in our program is free.

©Noelle Mason, Faculty

Is your program strictly photography-focused, or does it encourage/allow interdisciplinary work?

We are an interdisciplinary program and encourage our students to experiment broadly. All graduate students will come in working in a specific medium as graduate assistants but will have the opportunity to work with faculty in a variety of disciplines. Content is king here – not medium specificity.

Do you specialize in a particular area (i.e. documentary, experimental, environmental work)? And once in the program, is a student able to shift their focus if their creative interests change?

We encourage students to explore their interests and experiment in a variety of areas and disciplines. We do not pigeonhole our grad students. Rather, we help them find the areas that excite them the most and help them grow as artists. Our students and faculty engage with a wide range of practices, including documentary photography, experimental image-making, installation, social practice, moving image, performance, archival research, alternative photographic processes, and interdisciplinary work. Rather than emphasizing a particular genre, we encourage students to develop the forms and methodologies that best support their ideas.

One of the strengths of the USF MFA is the freedom to evolve. Students often enter the program identifying as photographers and leave making installations, videos, performances, or hybrid works that combine multiple disciplines. Others deepen and refine a more medium-specific practice. Our goal is to produce engaged artists who are able to develop their practice and create research questions that will drive their studio practice for years to come – the questions they want to ask.

©Noelle Mason, Faculty

How structured is the curriculum? Are there required courses, or is it more self-directed?

The majority of the credits in our MFA program are from independent directed studies taken every semester with faculty of the student’s choosing. Close-knit relationships are formed in these meetings, and this individualized attention helps our students find their unique paths as artists. Additionally, there is a seminar class every fall and a contemporary issues art history class that the students must take in the spring of their first year. The curriculum is designed to provide a strong theoretical foundation while allowing students the flexibility to pursue ambitious, self-directed studio research. The program emphasizes professional practices throughout the curriculum; students develop both writing and public speaking skills that will serve them as they move their research into national and international contexts.

Does the program incorporate video work or emerging media such as AI, VR/AR, or 3D/360 imaging?

Yes. USF embraces a broad understanding of contemporary artistic practice. Students have access to faculty and facilities supporting video, animation, digital fabrication, installation, expanded photography, and emerging technologies including AI, VR/AR, and 3D/360 imaging.

©Adda Farcus, Faculty

Does the program offer career development support, such as portfolio reviews, workshop/conference attendance, or networking opportunities?

Professional development is integrated in every level of the MFA program through seminar classes, one-on-one meetings with visiting artists and critics, and professional practice discussions. Faculty actively mentor students as they apply for exhibitions, grants, residencies, and teaching opportunities.

Our photography students regularly attend national portfolio reviews like Review Santa Fe and attend Society for Photographic Education conferences regionally and nationally. There are travel funds available for students interested in these opportunities; we strongly encourage students to apply to regional, national, and international opportunities that will challenge them and create new networks.

©Kyna Patel, Current Student

What are key graduation requirements (exhibition, thesis paper, portfolio, etc.)?

Students complete a substantial body of creative work culminating in a public MFA thesis exhibition at the USF Contemporary Art Museum. They also produce a written thesis documenting and contextualizing their research and practice. Throughout the program, students participate in regular reviews that help them refine their ideas, articulate their artistic positions, and prepare for the final exhibition and defense.

©Patrick Carew, Alum

Who are your current faculty members? What are their areas of creative interest?

First, our faculty are working artists–they come to USF having had years of national and international exhibition experience and continue those trajectories as working artist educators.

The photography program is run by faculty Jason Lazarus and Marcus DeSieno.

Jason’s work includes a range of fluid methodologies: photography, found and appropriated images, text-as-image, photo-derived sculptures made individually and collaboratively with the public, live archives, film, video, LED light images, and public submission repositories among others. This expanded practice seeks new approaches of inquiry, embodiment, and bearing witness through both individual and collective research.

Marcus’ work investigates institutions of power through the language of photography. His practice focuses on documenting the enduring legacies of American empire, surveillance, and how visual technology is used as a tool of oppression by the State. At the core of his practice is an engagement with alternative and experimental photographic processes. Marcus loves working with students interested in the materiality of photography.

We have numerous faculty in other areas who also work with photography. For instance, Noelle Mason, the coordinator of the MFA program, integrates photography deeply into her artist practice. Noelle’s research is about the insufficiency of images to communicate critical experiential layers that complicate the dialogue and response to disturbing and traumatic rifts in the American cultural fabric. She is especially interested in forensic surveillance both as a witness and powerful means of control through scopic enjoyment, and the way in which subtle changes in the medium can affect the reception of surveillance imagery.

©Patrick Carew, Alum

Are faculty members primarily full-time or adjunct?

The department is made up primarily of full-time, tenured, or tenure-track faculty.

How involved are faculty in mentoring students beyond coursework?

Mentorship is one of the strongest aspects of the program. Faculty work closely with students throughout their three years, often extending conversations well beyond the classroom. Studio visits, directed studies, exhibition preparation, grant applications, conference participation, and professional development are all areas where faculty play an active role.

©Diana Sosnowska, Alum

How often do guest artists, curators, or critics visit for lectures and/or critiques?

Very often. Our Kennedy Family Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series is robust, and we try to bring in at least 4-5 artists and critics each semester. This doesn’t include the programing from the Contemporary Art Museum on campus or the visiting artists and curators who come into the seminar classes for critiques. Our graduate students are constantly interacting with and receiving feedback from professionals in the field.

©Diana Sosnowska, Alum

How many students are admitted each year, and how many are photography focused?

Our MFA enrollment per year ranges from 9-12 new students per year, with 1-3 per year particularly interested in photography.

What is the approximate cohort size, and what effect does this have on critiques, collaboration, and networking?

Overall, our program has around 30 MFA candidates at any given time. This number allows for strong financial support, a critical mass of voices and perspectives, and individual attention from faculty and visiting artists.

©Jeremy Chandler, Alum

What kind of work are current students creating?

Our MFA students are making work as broadly as the cultural field they enter upon graduation. Two of our graduate students were just accepted to the nationally prestigious Skowhegan Residency Program with wildly different material and conceptual interests, but both share a level of ambition and experimentation that make them typical of our best students. You can see their work on their instagrams here (insta: @_dianasosnowska and @lil_pissy_miss)

©Darlene Gold, Alum

What is the total cost of the program (and duration), and what funding options are available?

The MFA at USF is a fully funded three-year program. Graduate assistants receive tuition waivers and competitive stipends in exchange for teaching or assisting within the School of Art & Art History.

Are there teaching assistantships, and what percentage of tuition do they cover?

Yes. Students have the opportunity to be instructors of record of their own photography classes in their time here after first assisting the full-time faculty for the first year. Graduate assistantships include a full tuition waiver as well as a competitive stipend.

©Amber Toplisek, Alum

Are additional grants/resources available to support student projects?

Students can apply for university-wide research and travel funding, departmental awards, and professional development opportunities. Additional support is available for conference travel, exhibitions, research projects, and other scholarly and creative activities.

Faculty also actively mentor students through external grant, residency, and fellowship applications.

©Selina Roman, Alum

What types of careers to alumni pursue, and how does the program support students after graduation?

Our students have found success in both academia as artist-educators and as studio artists navigating the cultural field. The thread that our best students share is an unwavering commitment to research, material, experimentation, and grand visions of what art can be in our cultural moment. Support often takes the form of one-on-one counsel with mentors when students are presented with new opportunities that require high levels of professionalism (writing a big grant, job interviews, applications to prestigious residencies/letters of support, etc. Last, faculty mentors often reach out on behalf of graduated students to create new networking opportunities custom to the interests and trajectory of the alumni.

©Jezabeth Roca González, Alum

How connected is the alumni network, and do graduates stay involved with the program?

Our graduate students create tight bonds over our three-year program and often join current faculty in inviting each other into exhibitions occurring all over the country generated by our longstanding network of MFA alums. Students become peers and collaborators over time.

©Hillary McCullough, Alum

©Bahareh Khoshooee, Alum

©Luke Myers, Alum