Want More Photography Knowledge? Try These Free MIT Courses

Guest Post | Feb 16, 2010 | Comments View Comments

This guest post was provided by Melissa Tamura who blogs about online degrees on the Zen College Life blog.

Have you been yearning to step up your photography knowledge but haven’t been able to afford the required classes? Well, you may be in luck. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) allows for a large portion of the materials from previous courses to be accessed online by anyone interested in learning. Currently, there are over 1800 courses available, some of which are centered around photography.

Of course, these courses have no live instructors or current syllabi, but all of the coursework is available without having to register. So if you’re thinking of broadening your photography spectrum, why not do so for free? The most it would cost you is a few hours, days or weeks of your time and maybe a bit of brain power.

Introduction to Photography

This course was originally workshop-centered and offered as a part of the Visual Arts Program at MIT. It pushes the agenda of fostering a critical awareness of how images are produced and constructed in our culture. In addition to photographic theory, the course offers practical instruction on a variety of photography concepts, including lighting, film exposure, development, printing, digital imaging, fundamentals of camera operation and black and white techniques. Also, the coursework looks at the relationship of image to language.

Introduction to Photography and Related Media

This course, originally offered in a different semester than the previous course, offers a slightly different interpretation to introducing photography. The coursework available on MIT’s site provides practical instruction on the fundamentals of analog and digital SLR. In addition, it looks at medium/large format camera operation, black and white darkroom techniques, digital imaging, studio lighting and film exposure and development.

Numeric Photography

Numeric photography was first offered in 1998 and was the first class taught under the Aesthetics and Computation Group at the MIT Media Lab. It looks at the very early stages of interactive computer graphics and their combination with the media arts.

Photography and Truth

This course looks at photography as an art form, research tool and communication. The site explains that photographs in anthropology serve many purposes. These purposes include illustrations of words in a book, primary data, documentation for disappearing cultures, evidence of fieldwork, material objects for museum exhibitions and works of art. Also, it explores just how photography is used as a tool to reveal, explore and preserve truths in life.

Sensing Place: Photography as Inquiry

If you want to dig deeper into the concepts behind photography, you’ll love this course. It explores photography as a disciplined way of seeing, as well as investigating landscapes and expressing ideas. In addition, light, place, poetics, narrative and how photography can inform design and planning are all explored.

There’s something exciting about realizing that you can learn more about one of your favorite pastimes – or professions – from the comfort of your home, and for free! So if you’re ready to learn more about photography, now’s the time to dive into these free MIT courses.

Photograph study by xgray of xgray vision

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