One Photo School's Programs and Facilities - FYI
and...@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Rochester Institute of Technology
an unofficial and personal description prepared by
Andrew Davidhazy
(who works there)
The School of Photographic Arts and Sciences is part of the Rochester Institute
of Technology, a 15,000+ student multidisciplinary and mostly technologically
oriented university located in Upstate NY just outside the snow-belt between
Buffalo and Syracuse. Still get a lot of snow though! Summers are pleasant!
>> If you would like a catalogue and view book just send me an e-mail reply <<
The School itself has an enrollment of about 900 students who come here from
all over the world, studying a variety of photographic specialties. The School
is broken down into Departments with each offering one or more degree programs.
The School is primarily an undergrauate school and in the various photography
programs grants AAS, BFA, BS and MFA degrees. The Departments, their
approximate sizes and programs are as follows:
Applied Photography. By far the largest group with about 18 faculty and 400
students. It offers a BFA program with emphasis on advertising/commercial
photography or photojournalism. Among the specialty course listings of this
Department (other than the "generic" Photography I and Photography II) you will
find Food Photography, Underwater Photography, Art Direction and Copywriting,
Zone System, Studio Lighting Techniques, Portrait Photography, Intro to Color,
and many others dealing with the application of small, medium and large format
cameras. Several courses in Electronic Still Photography are also incorporated
among the offerings of this Department.
Fine Art Photography. This program shares the first year with the Applied
program but from thereon the students split off into an arts oriented stream
leading to a BFA degree. Among courses in this Department you will find History
and Aesthetics of Photography, Contemporary Issues, Gallery Management
Practice, Photo Media Workshop, and Photography as Fine Art. This department
also offers an MFA program in Imaging Arts. There are about 40 undergraduate
and 30 graduate students associated with the Fine Arts area.
Imaging and Photographic Technology is comprised of about 8 faculty and 80
students. The department offers several service courses to the other programs,
most notably a year long Materials and Processes of Photography course which
all but the Fine Art Photography students are required to complete. In addition
to technically oriented courses such as Sensitometry, Optics, Imaging Systems
Design, Color Measurement, Photoinstrumentation, Digital Image Processing, High
Speed Photography, Photographic Chemistry, it also offers several shooting
oriented courses such as Nature Photography, Reversal Color Printing,
Architectural Photography, etc. Graduates of this program typically find
employment in industrial, corporate and government positions nationwide.
Biomedical Photographic Communications is a department of 4 instructors and
their program prepares students to work in the photographic aspects of the
health sciences. There are about 80 students enrolled in this program. In
addition to specialized courses in Photomacrography and Photomicrography,
Computer Graphics and Ophthalmic Photography, this department also offers
several courses in audiovisual production.
Film/Video is a department of about 6 faculty. Besides the undergraduate
program in this area they also offer a graduate program in computer animation.
Among the course listings for this department you will find Video Tools and
Technology, Animation and Graphic Film Production, Writing for Film and Video,
Acting for Film and Video, Film Language, Film and Video in Paris Summer
course, Microcomputer Animation, etc. There are about 175 students in these
programs.
Photo Systems Management is a department with only two full time professors
plus a staff of technical associates. The program offered here is geared
primarily for transfer students who have already completed an AAS degree either
at RIT or elsewhere. A full range of subjects are covered in a working, full
service, photographic laboratory that services the needs of the rest of the
students in the School. Employment prospects for graduates of this program are
excellent. There are about 30 students in this program.
The School occupies the top three floors of a very large building. The 2nd, or
ground floor, is dedicated to some of the scientific and technical laboratories
the Biomedical, Fine Art and Imaging and Photo Tech Departments and all the
faculty and administrative offices.
The next floor up is primarily devoted to the gallery, 13 freshman studios, 13
freshman darkrooms each with two Omega 4X5 enlargers, the equipment "cage"
where students can check out all sorts of small and large format cameras,
lights and accessories, the Upperclass darkrooms comprised of about 100
individual darkrooms equipped with either 4X5 Omega or Chromega enlargers, and
the Color Center with 20 larger color darkrooms and several 24" Kreonite
machine processors, two set-up for RA4, one for Ektachrome and one for
Ilfochrome.
The 4th, or top floor, is dedicated to the Film/Video and Animation area which
itself is made up of several classrooms and projection rooms, editing suites,
equipment cage, sound stages, etc.
This floor also houses the studios or which there are about 30 each equipped
with state of the art Broncolor electronic flashes, scrims, tungsten lights
and Sinar studio cameras equipped with an assortment of lenses. The studios are
also serviced by an equipment cage that carries specialty items and medium and
large format cameras designed for studio use.
The Photofinishing Management department is located in the basement and it
offers a full-service laboratory that provides photofinishing services
incorporating the latest advancements in this technology to the Institute
community.
Besides the strictly teaching oriented departments, the School also
incorporates the Image Permanence Institute where research is conducted on
various aspects of image preservation, handling and storage.
In addition to the state-of-the-art photographic facilities of the School
itself, it is important to note that RIT is located in Rochester, the Imaging
Capital of the World. Several major photographic, graphic arts and imaging
related companies are located in the city. The School is part of the College of
Imaging Arts and Sciences and has excellent working relations with the
constituents of the rest of the College, namely the School of Printing
Management and Sciences, the Center for Imaging Science, the School for American
Craftsmen and the School of Fine and Applied Arts.
Just to give you a more detailed overview of the hardware and facilities
available in the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences I am including the
lists below.
Facilities List IPT = Imaging and Photo Tech
IPI = Image Permanence Institute
Darkrooms: 148
Under Grad Black & White: 82
Under Grad Color: 40
Graduate Black & White: 8
Graduate Color: 11
Special Purpose Darkrooms
Color Film Processing: 1
Large Print Color: 1
Large Print Black & White: 1
Non Silver: 1
IPT Research: 1
IPT Sensitometry 12
Faculty: 2
Print Finishing Areas: 3
Archival Print Drying: 2
Shooting Studios: 41
1st Year Studios: 13
Upperclass Studios: 31
Film & Video: 1
Bio-Medical: 1
IPT: 1
Specialty Laboratories: 16
IPT - Optics/Holography: 1
IPT - Chemistry: 1
IPT - SEM: 1 (Scanning Electron Microscope)
IPT - Color Measurement: 1
IPT - Digital Imaging: 2
IPT - High Speed Photo: 1
Bio-Med - Main Lab: 1
Bio-Med - Photo Mic.: 1 (Photo Microscopy)
Bio-Med - Computer Lab: 2 (Presentation Graphics & Imaging)
IPI - Image Permanence: 1
ESP - Imaging Lab: 1 (Electronic Still Photography)
Photo Processing Lab: 1
Retouching Lab: 1
Film & Video Labs
16mm Film Editing: 1
1/2" Video Editing: 1
3/4" Video Editing: 1
Digital Video Editing: 1
Sound Recording & Editing: 2
Computer Animation: 2
Animation: 3
Screening Room: 1
Optical Printer: 1
Support Facilities
Photo Equipment Stock Rooms: 3
Machine Processing labs: 2
Chemical Mixing: 1
Repair Shops: 3
Storage Rooms: 16
Dedicated Photo Classrooms (In building)
4th Floor: 2
3rd Floor: 1
2nd Floor: 3
These are classrooms equipped with print rails, tack boards, and
lighting with dimmers.
Faculty & Staff Offices: 44
Gallery Space
The school has two formal gallery locations. The main SPAS gallery is
located on the 3rd floor, room 3030 (2347 sq. ft.). Located on the
2nd floor is the "little gallery". This is an open air space used for
small student shows. The 2nd floor also has several display cases
that are used for exhibiting work. The school has a climate
controlled archive room where the permanent collection is housed.
Equipment List
Due to the extreme size of our inventory this list is limited to
basic categorization rather than exact numbers of all items.
Still Photo
Large Format: 90
Cambo 4 x 5
Sinar P2 & F 4 x 5, P2 8 X 10
Speed Graphic 4 x 5 (there is a wide range of lenses
Toyo 4 x 5, 8 x 10 for all of our large format cameras)
Deardorf 8 x 10
Burke & James 11 x 14
Medium Format: 30
Hasselblad 500 CM
Mamiya RZ-67, C3, & 6
Fuji 645, 670, 690, 617 (there is a wide range of lenses
Pentax 645, 6 X 7 for all of our medium format cameras)
Bronica 6 X 6
35mm Cameras & Lenses: 35
Canon F1, EOS & full range of lenses (7.5mm - 500mm)
Leica R3, M6 & lenses (21mm - 180mm )
Minolta Maxxum 8000i & lenses
Nikon EM, F2, F3 & lenses (28mm - 300mm)
Olympus OM-4 & lenses (24mm - 500mm)
Kiron & Vivitar lenses for various 35mm cameras (24mm - 400mm)
Widelux
Nikonos IV
Camera Accessories:
Tripods
Polariod Backs for 4 x 5 & 8 x 10, and polariod 35mm processors
Bag bellows
Macro bellows
Still Video & Digital: 18
Canon, Sony, Konica, Minolta, Nikon, Kodak
Portable Lighting: 25 kits
Smith Victor quartz kits & photo floods
Lowel quartz kits
Comet kits (flash)
White Lightning kits (flash)
Broncolor Impact kits (flash)
Studio Lighting:
31 Studios Equipped With Broncolor Flashman I, II, Pulso 4, 6,
606 Servor, Hazy Lights, Cumulite
44 Studios Equipped With Mole Richardson Mini spots, Baby Solar
Spots, Solar Spots, Baby Softlite, Super Softlite
Darkroom Accessories:
Trays, tanks, deep tanks, reels, film hangers, tray siphons, print
washers, contact frames, easels, negative carriers, masks, cold light
heads, thermometers, tube processors, jugs, focusing aids,
bobulators, safelights, funnels, filters, beakers, hoses, tongs, etc.
Machine Processing Equipment & Chemical Mixing Support
The following is a list of our current processors:
Machine Type Location
Ilford Omni-Pro 20" Ilfochrome P-4 Color Center
Kreonite KMIII 30" Ektacolor RA-4 Color Center
Kreonite KMIII 26" Ektacolor RA-4 Color Center
Kreonite KMIII 26" Ektachrome R-3 Color Center
Kreonite KMIII 20" B & W RC paper Machine Processing
Kreonite KMIII 10" B & W film Machine Processing
Jobo ATL-3 Color Film Color Center
The following is a complete list the chemicals available from
Chem-mix.
Developers Beers A & B
D-11 (24 hr. notice required)
D-19 D-23 (24 hr. notice required)
D-72 (dektol)
D-76
DK-50
HC-110 dilution A
Selectol
Kodalith A & B
Tanning A & B
T-Max Reversal
General 18 % Sodium sulfite
1% Anti fog
Indicator stop bath
NH5 fixer (hypo)
NH5 non-hardening fixer Perma Wash
Hypo test solution
Chromium intensifier
In-4 intensifier
In-6 intensifier (24 hr. notice required)
R4-A (farmers reducer)
R-5 A & B
Cyanotype A & B
Van Dyke Brown
10% Ammonium Dichromate
Gum Arabic
Color & Dye Transfer
5% Sodium acetate
Matrix highlight reducer
Matrix film fixer
Paper conditioner
E-6 $ C-41 $ Dye kits
Dye transfer paper (third floor cage)
Equipment Cage Hours
Monday - Thursday................. 8:00 am - 10:30 pm
Friday............................ 8:00 am - 6:00 pm
Saturday.......................... 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Darkroom Hours
Monday - Thursday................. 8:00 am - 10:15 pm
Friday............................ 8:00 am - 5:45 pm
Saturday.......................... 9:00 am - 4:45 pm
Studio Hours
Monday - Thursday................. 8:00 am - 10:15 pm
Friday............................ 8:00 am - 5:45 pm
Saturday.......................... 9:00 am - 4:45 pm
Chemical Mixing
Monday - Thursday................. 9:00 am - 9:30 pm
Friday............................ 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Saturday......................... 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Andy
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\/\/\/\/\/\/ Andrew Davidhazy, RIT, High Speed Photography Lab.
| | IN%"and...@ritvax.isc.rit.edu" fax 716-475-5804
________/ \_____________________________________________________