MFA Thesis Catalog

The Photography program at Columbia College Chicago is thrilled to announce the release of its MFA Thesis Catalog for 2020. This collection boasts work from five lens-based artists with a diverse array of styles, processes, and perspectives, celebrating the fiercely independent streak that has become a cornerstone of this program. These pages contain the quiet and haunting, and inward-looking film stills of Atefeh Farajollahzadeh, Jordan Putt’s exploration of the sun-drenched landscape and distinct citizens of Tucson; the ornate, culture-jamming digital creations of Michael Reese, Forrest Simmons’s genre-hopping ode to space and time, and Dylan Yarbrough’s inquiry into the facade of modern urban life in Chicago. The five artists represented here, in response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, have taken the unprecedented step of assembling, editing, and collaborating on this book remotely across four time zones. With an intended thesis exhibition show cancelled due to the crisis, all efforts have been funneled into making this book. It serves as document of these artists’ time and efforts at Columbia College, as well as a symbolic gesture of perseverance, cooperation, and the importance of art in a sometimes-frightening world.