MECA&D Photo Department

It’s the end of the year~! Congratulations to all of the our Photo Major seniors and new graduates! 🎉💐🎓 We’re so excited to see what you do next! @quimmby @norahanlonphoto @lyra.noumena @artemis_tannatt_photography @kingraat @ewhitephoto Congratulations to the photo faculty too: @mecaphotoprof @mrsdpeterman @tabitha_barnard @dylan.hausthor #mecaphotodept #mecadphotodept #graduation #commencement #photomajors

At the end of the semester, the Commercial Photography class makes a group photo using as many of the studio lights as possible! #commercialphotography #mecadphotodept #mecaphotodept

“Strike the set” Ton of fun and a lot of hard work with my commercial photography class at the Maine College of Art & Design.

Join us for the opening reception of [insert title here]: 2026 BFA Thesis Exhibition, this Friday, May 1, from 5:00 – 8:00pm! Featuring the work of 86 seniors, we invite you to explore the four levels of work that are the culmination of our students' hard work and creative practice, honed through peer and faculty critique, informed by their academic studies, and shaped by their unique vision. We hope you celebrate our incredible students with us. Learn more about the exhibition via the link in bio.

The Photography Department is excited to announce that one of our students, Nate Walker (@walker.tiff ), was recognized in the 2026 Merit Awards Ceremony with an Honorable Mention!! We also want to give a shout out to all of our Majors who hung work in the show this year!!!! Scroll through the images above to see Nate’s installation! Artist Statement: 𝘋𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘐𝘵 𝘖𝘧 ... 𝘗𝘶𝘵 𝘐𝘵 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭 Being born at the turn of the digital era, I never got to discover the shoe box in the attic full of prints and negatives, bent hunched over on the floor flipping through moments of my life. Instead, all 6,803 photos and videos taken of me, from birth to today, are accessible at any moment via a digital cloud archive given to me by my parents. The lack of physicality to these memories and their accessibility has led to my realization of my relationship with the imagery of my youth. Now bringing them into the material world, leaning into the fading of memory, and the synthesis of memory through viewing these images, I strip away visual photographic data, leaving behind a tactile imprint of childhood. 𝓗𝓲𝓻𝓪𝓮𝓽𝓱 In the accompanying video piece, I wanted to pay homage to both my great-grandmother and her house that no longer stands. By removing the family members and subjects from the image using computational synthetic imagery, I create a partial representation of this space while slightly altering and blurring its true reality, akin to my recollection of what it once looked like. 𝓐𝓷𝓪𝓶𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓲𝓼 In the curtained-off portion, after firing the flash, your eyes are momentarily burned in with a color image, followed by a reflexive blink that resets your retinal fatigue, then, as your eyes re-adjust, the green glow of the image melts away. Through this, I capture the feeling of being stuck in nostalgia and romanticizing the past, only to be quickly brought back to reality. 📸 by @walker.tiff #contemporaryphotography #analoguephotography #darkroom #mecaphotodept

A tradition in Commercial Photography has students selecting a painting to recreate for the Doppelgänger project. Both groups chose images by the Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio to recreate! In the photos above the students are printing and hanging the images (about 49x40in!) for display on the 4th floor! Left Image: Inspired by 𝘋𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘩 (𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘪𝘰, 𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘦) 1609-1610 Right Image: Inspired by 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵 (𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘪𝘰, 𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘥) 1609 Documentation 1-2: @artemis_tannatt_photography #commercialphoto #baroquepainting #doppelganger #installation #mecaphotodept

Inspired by 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵 (𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘪𝘰, 𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘥) 1609 We have a traditional assignment in Commercial Photography (The Doppelgänger Assignment) where students select a painting to recreate with studio lighting! This year, both groups chose paintings by the Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio to recreate! Thank you to our models who made the final cut! 😂 Photo by @walker.tiff @mattkrausart @fallenkingdomart Models: @fallenkingdomart + @mattkrausart + @walker.tiff + @mecaphotoprof First Image: Finished image by students! Second Image: Original painting 🎨 Third Image: Side by side comparison #commercialphotography #baroquepainting #doppelganger #mecaphotodept #mecadphotodept

Join S. Billie Mandle in Osher Hall on Monday, March 23, at 12:00 pm for a Visiting Artist talk. @sbilliemandle , is a photographer whose work addresses themes of place, perception, and impermanence. Her book, Asunder, was published by @tbwbooks in 2025. Mandle has been supported by fellowships from Light Work, Yaddo, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, as well as a research grant from UCLA. The Spring Visiting Artist Series is free and open to the public. Follow the link in bio to learn more about the upcoming lectures! Funded through the generous support of the Gene R. Cohen Charitable Foundation.

Featured Image by Photo Major @lyra.noumena ‘26 “untitled” This image appeared in finals for our “Into the Light” class! - - - See more images by @lyra.noumena <—— here! ✨ #intothelight #contemporaryphotography #mecaphotodept #mecadphotodept

Did you miss this month's First Friday? There's still time to catch the two shows that just opened: Everyday is All There Is at @theicaatmeca open through April 18, and Rights and Responsibilities by Ryer Spann '26 and Quimby Danger '26 on view at 49 Oak until March 21. Find times to visit these shows via the link in bio.

Opening THIS Friday: 'Rights and Responsibilities' is a duo show, with Ryer Spann '26 and Quimby Danger '26 (two of our Photo Seniors!) In this show they are investigating two starkly different communities of people and how they access play, comfort, and tomfoolery. Spann’s work looks into the hyper Maine Maritime Academy community, in contrast to more tender, emotional, imagined worlds. Danger is looking inward to her closer relationships with friends and her sisters; she is examining safety being found in absurdity and close community. The two are interested in what is allowed inherently through patriarchal powers and how that is enforced or rejected. Join us March 6th, 2026 from 5:30pm-8:30pm @ 49 Oak St. Portland, ME for the opening night! Show runs from March 6th - 21st! #contemporaryphotography #galleryshow #photography

This week, @mecaphotoprof went through the past class portfolios during Majors Studio with some of the Photo Majors. Traditionally, the class makes a book, or a box, every spring to collect the work of every student/faculty/tech from that year! These students were given a glimpse into a time capsule! Images from the earliest portfolios were c-prints or darkroom prints only! #portfolio #timecapsule #artschool #photomajors #mecaphotodept