Is this project portfolio-worthy for an MFA in Photography?

[dollsneerpiece]

Hi guys,

 

I'm new to the GradCafe and new to the idea of an MFA. Well, sorta. I have a BS in Psychology and started work on a Ph.D. in psych back in 2006. Turned out, I hated the politics and the bureaucracy and the program itself. I initially pursued psychology because it was practical, though I always wanted an art school education. I moved to New York City around that time and fell in love with photography.

 

I started out shooting live music, worked on guerrilla portraits of some of my favorite musicians, headshots, and weddings, but it turns out that my passion project is an extension of my love for the things I studied in my psychology days. I've been working on a portrait-based project called Live Through This (http://livethroughthis.org) for the past two years. It's more of a suicide awareness advocacy project. I work with suicide attempt survivors. They tell me their stories, and I make their portrait while they're in that headspace. These people give me access to their deepest, darkest experiences because I share my story with them, too. At it's most basic level, the idea here is to show that anybody can be affected by suicide. I only have 12 portraits at the moment, but I have a list of 60-70 people across the country who have said that they'd like to participate. I think that kind of breadth will really drive my point home. When I publish the photos on the website, I pair them with a snippet of that person's interview.

 

It's not meant to be terribly 'artistic.' It's straightforward, and I want it to be accessible, mainly. Eventually, I'd like to collect data on the people who sit for me as well (see? My past experiences do inform this work), so that the project appeals to people who are affected by different kinds of information.

 

The only art education I have at the college level is in creative writing. I'm completely self-taught in photography, do as much reading and soak up as much information as possible on my own, but I know that my self-education is spotty in the areas of art history and writing about art. I've been taking continuing education classes at 3rd Ward in Brooklyn, but find that the people who take classes there are mostly imbeciles, and come into classes meant to be taught at a higher level having never operated a DSLR. I'm going to start TAing at ICP in the next few weeks, and I've been spending time with a photographer who's been in the field for three decades, who does NOT hold an MFA, and says that my career will be extremely limited without one. So, now I'm in a place where I'm starting to do research. I want to stay in NYC, so I obviously have options (Pratt and Parsons stick out for me). If I apply, I'll aim to start in Fall 2014.

 

That gives me a year to either work on Live Through This, or start work on a new project. So, the question is: is Live Through This portfolio-worthy work? If not, can it be tweaked? If so, how? If it's not portfolio-worthy, what's the best way for me to start thinking of a new project? What is it, exactly, that programs are looking for in portfolios?

 

Thanks so much in advance for any advice you may have for me. It'll be much appreciated.

[laura_b]

Have you considered trying to sell this to a publisher? If you organized it and added some good copy, I can see it selling to the right publisher. As for MFA programs in art, from what I have seen, they usually require so much coursework in art and art history. Some allow you to be admitted on a conditional basis if you agree to take so many undergraduate hours to make up the deficiency. I minored in art (mostly illustration and drawing) as an undergraduate and looked into MFAs in visual art, but found that I would have to make up a lot of undergraduate coursework, specifically art history, and it wasn't worth it for me so I stuck with writing.