Welcome to all our new students for Fall 2026! We are so excited to welcome you to Columbia College Chicago, home of the Photo Community Club, where we make friends, take photos, and build careers! Drop your Instagram in the comments new folks!!! #nationaldecisionday @columbiachi@columphoto@mocpchi
Support students’ working with analog cameras! We are collecting analog film cameras in partnership with @filterphoto to try and collect enough film cameras to run multiple sections of an analog film class. Not many students own film cameras in 2026 - this would allow us to open the class to more folks!
Wednesday, February 5, 2025 6–7:30 p.m. CT
600 S. Michigan Ave. – Ferguson Lecture Hall
Photo by Mark Steinmetz from the Chicago series (which opens this week at @stephendaitergallery )
Based in Athens, GA, Mark Steinmetz is an American photographer known for his black-and-white portraits of ordinary people in the spaces they inhabit. Steinmetz graduated from Yale’s MFA photography program in 1986, and has since taught at numerous prestigious colleges including Harvard, Yale, Sarah Lawrence, and Emory. His work has been exhibited in many major institutions, including Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Georgia; Art Institute of Chicago; and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Among other awards, Steinmetz was the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship.
WE ARE BACK for another photo club meeting!
Our first meeting went amazingly, and we were so happy to see everyone who came to join the community. For our next meeting we will be doing group critiques. Make sure to bring prints, files, or your portfolio/website to share!
MEETING DETAILS:
When: Wednesday, October 23rd
Where: 600 S Michigan Ave, 1st floor, Harrison entrance @ The C.art (Community Engagement Hub)
Time: 5 - 7PM
Hey party people! First Photo Community Club meeting is Weds Oct 9th, 5-7pm in the Community Engagement space on the first floor of 600 S Michigan Ave, by the Harrison entrance. Open to all Columbia students! Free food and drinks. We have big plans for this school year! Help us make them a reality! Join the community!
Please join us on Thursday, September 19, from 7 to 9 p.m. for a Lecture in Photography with Catherine Opie!
@catherineopiestudio is one of the most important photographers of her generation. Her subjects have included early seminal portraits of the LGBTQ+ community, the architecture of Los Angeles’ freeway system, mansions in Beverly Hills, Midwestern icehouses, high school football players, California surfers, and abstract landscapes of National Parks, among others. She was a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow recipient and the Robert Mapplethorpe Resident in Photography at the American Academy in Rome for
2021. She has exhibited at international venues such as Guggenheim Museum in New York, The Photographer’s Gallery in London, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebeek, Denmark. Opie lives and works in Los Angeles.
This program is a partnership between the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Columbia College School of Visual Arts, and the Filter Photo Festival.
Two exhibitions by current students, opening Thurs, Sept 19, 5-7pm!! Hokin Gallery and C33 Gallery! Go to both openings the same night then the lecture by @catherineopiestudio at 7pm in the Student Center!
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Mark Hawk: Dissociating is an exploration of trauma and healing, uncovering the complexities of self-worth, identity, and family dynamics. Through photography, quilting, and video, this evocative exhibition invites viewers to experience and reflect on the fragmented nature of memory and emotion.
Programming:
Wednesday, October 9, 6-6:30 p.m.
Artist Talk
Hokin Gallery—Columbia College Chicago
623 S. Wabash Ave, 1st Floor Chicago, IL 60605
Gallery Hours: Monday–Friday 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
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Dulce Vida is an intersectional view of the Hispanic-American presence in Chicago explored by Latina artists Lizeth Medina, Carmen Ordoñez, and Carolina Villanueva. These photographic works embody their experiences and interactions in traditional Mexican Folkloric dance, Lowrider culture, and differing cultural values regarding life and death. This collection strives to represent contrasting subcultures within the same community and spark conversation about their social issues.
C33 Gallery
33 E. Ida B. Wells Drive, First Floor
Chicago, IL 60605
Gallery Hours: Monday–Friday 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Tonight! View the work of department alumni @nyiasissac among others! This exhibit will display their process and resulting artwork with students, giving a unique opportunity to better understand the context of how CPS Lives is pairing Chicago artists with Chicago Public Schools.
Class of 2024 Opening Reception
Tuesday, June 4, 5:00-7:00 pm
Design Museum of Chicago
This exhibit will show work from Kat Bawden, Eseosa Edebiri, Juan Hernandez, Haerim Lee, Miguel Limon, and Nya Sissac.
Congrats to the grads of 2024! @columphoto is so proud of your amazing photographic work AND ALSO the Photo Community Club, the work you’ve done supporting one another (including raising funds for one another at the Gala!), learning at awesome partners like @mocpchi and sooo much more! We will miss you all greatly AND we look forward to staying in touch with you. You’re amazing and we are consistently awed by your awesomeness!
Celebrate our graduating MFA students Thesis Exhibition!
May 6–28, 2024
Reception: Thursday, May 9, 5–8 p.m.
Participating artists: Andre Barker Jr, Nora Benjamin, Callie Clark Wiren, Noah Fodor, Eli Giclas, Ash Huse, Hillary Irene Johnson, Adam MacArthur, Giselle Mira-Diaz, Grace Papineau-Couture, Arrietta van der Voort, and andrew vogelpohl
Columbia College Chicago Student Center, Fifth Floor
754 S. Wabash Avenue, Chicago, IL 60605
Gallery hours: Monday–Saturday 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
@nxravisuals@noah.fodor@eligiclas@ash.huse@hillary_irene_the_photographer@giselle_miradiaz@arri.etta@boovogey
Celebrate graduation week with a lecture by @columphoto alumni @gregoryjohnharris ! First image is one of his undergraduate photos (nice work!) and his pathway and influence in the field of photography is inspirational to us all in the department. He will lecture on Weds, May 8, 6pm, Ferguson Lecture Hall, 600 S Michigan Avenue. FREE to students, faculty, and the public.
Gregory Harris is the Donald and Marilyn Keough Curator of Photography at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. He is a specialist in contemporary photography with a particular interest in documentary practice. Since joining the High in 2016, Harris has curated over a dozen exhibitions including A Long Arc: Photography and the American South since 1845, Evelyn Hofer: Eyes on the City, and Look Again: 40 Years of Collecting Photographs as well as solo shows with Thomas Struth, Paul Graham, and Amy Elkins. In 2018, he led the expansion and installation of the Photography Department’s new permanent collection galleries. Harris is currently working on the exhibitions Truth Told Slant, and Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis. Before joining the High, Harris was the Assistant Curator at the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago and he held curatorial positions in the Photography Department at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Harris has also contributed essays to monographs by Matthew Brandt, Paul D’Amato, Amy Elkins, Jill Frank, and the Metabolic Studio. He earned a BFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago, and an MA in art history from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Lectures in Photography are co-presented by MoCP and the Photography Department of Columbia College Chicago.
JOIN US FOR A PRINT SWAP - giveaways, free prints, and CELEBRATION. Celebrate Manifest with us! 1st floor of 600 S Michigan Ave - May 10 During Manifest - 3-6pm - hope to see you there!
