OUR MISSION

The AAS Commercial Photography Program at LaGuardia Community College was created over 20 years ago. Drawing on the influence of Manhattan’s Photography District, one of the largest photography industry collectives in the world, it made sense to create a gateway to this thriving marketplace for community college students. Currently the Manhattan Photography District is still a viable entity but it has changed remarkably as has the entire industry. The need for editors, digital printing technicians and digital assistants has risen. A niche market also exists in advertising, museum and fine art galleries, and in editorial assignments for practitioners of traditional skills, an area of great attraction for those students interested in the analog methods still employed in the industry.

Historically our students have been employed in a diverse range of jobs in the industry. We have former students working as photojournalists, fashion/editorial photographers, wedding/portrait photographers, photo retouchers, studio assistants, digital assistants, digital printers, photo editors, industry related retail salespersons, and managers at imaging industry businesses. Many former students have also successfully moved on to become studio owners. Marcus Nilsson, graduate of LaGuardia’s Photography program, is considered one of the finest still life/food photographers based in Manhattan. Many students have successfully completed BFA degrees at top rated senior colleges and have then gone onto graduate school. Hrvoje Slovenc graduated from Yale University’s MFA photography program in Spring 2010 and has returned to our program as an adjunct professor.

Today the program strives to prepare students for a position in this diverse and quickly changing industry. With an emphasis in photographic technique and the ability to link these skills to a personal artistic vision, our program successfully enables students to follow their own path into the extraordinary world of modern photography.

The future is bright for our program given its past successes and our recent occupation of an expansive, state of the art darkroom, studio and digital imaging facility. The need for visual imagery has changed over the past two decades but the sheer volume of photography used today in new media and in the ever-increasing world of visual communication continues to make LaGuardia’s Commercial Photography Program a most attractive educational choice for the modern photography student.

Scott Sternbach
Photography Program Director