@selkie
as an UG i've had little contact with the grad students at massart (and just so you know, I am a 3d major so if i did have contact with them, it would most likely be with the 3d grads...) but the thing that makes mass art so great is he students. there are some great faculty members in some departments but in my experience, some departments are stacked with awesome profs. and others have no one who is all that well known. it is true that abe is retiring, but there are some other noteable faculty including Nick Nixon and Laura McPhee. Have you seen this website: http://www.massartphoto.com/ ? check it out. Like I said, I am in 3d, so I dont know too too much about photo but I can tell you that the people in the photo department love the crap out it and we have things that are uncommon. We have a 20 x 24 polaroid camera, one of eight ever made, and we have 3 dark rooms and a digital lab, you probably saw all of this is you came for an interview... idk maybe you didn't.
There are a lot of improvement plans for the next few years at MassArt and it will be a really exciting time to be a student there.
To answer your question, I think you would be supported in whatever you want to do. Photo and Film (which are two separate departments) both tend to be more experimental than commercial, and lots of people in photo (again, i'm talking undergrad) take classes in other departments and use various techniques in their work outside of just photo.
As for alumni, Will Wegman graduated from massart but not in photo although that is what he is known for. Off the top of my head i can't name anyone famous/well known who got their masters degree from massart in photo. that is not to say there are none, but it is to say that i don't know all that much about photographers.
I have a lot of issues with MassArt as an undergrad, and some of them might be specific to being an undergrad, some of them might not be.
did that help? sorry i was super longwinded about it.