600 S. Michigan Ave

You’ll create images in your very first class in Columbia College Chicago’s Photography bachelor’s program. Our faculty of award-winning professional photographers will meet you where you are. If you’re new to the craft, they’ll help you get started. If you’re already familiar with photography, they’ll place you in an appropriate level. Photography majors choose a concentration in Fashion, Commercial, or Fine Art Photography. Concentrating your studies will give you an edge in a specialized area. Or, you can learn the ropes across disciplines by pursuing a general degree. You’ll be making images constantly during your time at Columbia. You’ll have access to professional equipment, including studios, cameras, lenses, and digital software and printers. You’ll learn to articulate your point of view through regular critiques with faculty members and peers. Chicago will be your campus—and your inspiration. You’ll have opportunities to work at studios, galleries, museums, and companies in the city.

Reserve and check out all the field equipment, from cameras to lighting kits to microphones, that students in television courses need to create their projects. The Television Equipment Center also maintains the classrooms and computer labs for television students.

Print black and white images in our fully outfitted photography darkrooms or experiment with Cyanotype, Van Dyke Brown, and liquid emulsion processes in the Experiment Techniques (ExTech) Lab. The photography darkrooms are open to students enrolled in a darkroom class or to students with previous darkroom experience.

The MoCP is the world’s premier college art museum dedicated to photography. As an international hub, we generate ideas and provoke dialogue among students, artists and diverse communities through groundbreaking exhibitions and programming. Our mission is to cultivate a deeper understanding of the artistic, cultural and political roles of photography in our world today. Founded in 1976 by Columbia College Chicago as the successor to the Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography, the Museum of Contemporary Photography began collecting in the early 1980s and has since grown its collection to include over 16,000 objects by over 1,500 artists. The MoCP is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

Experience working on professional TV studio sets with industry-standard equipment that includes three multi-camera HD studios, two control rooms, camera jib, and a 40-foot green screen cyclorama. Each studio has a Yamaha M7CL input digital audio board, an assortment of microphones, and four professional-grade cameras (Grass Valley and Panasonic) with teleprompter configurations. We have a large backdrop, furniture, and prop collection students can use to build sets such as a newsroom, kitchen, office, living space, and exterior buildings.

Columbia College Chicago provides a comprehensive safety and security program on campus. Our 24-hour Security Command Center includes dispatching capabilities and a sophisticated video surveillance and emergency communications network staffed around the clock. We continuously review the latest technology to ensure we are providing optimal security services to the community. To complement our 24/7 campus security patrols, security officers use a marked security vehicle, Segways and bicycles to provide rapid response to incidents. Columbia has an after-hours Security Escort Program to help students and employees travel safely between campus locations and from campus locations to pre-designated mass transit stations. The Security Escort Program is available seven days a week from 6 p.m.­–1 a.m. during the Fall and Spring semesters.