The culmination of the Photo program is the Senior Capstone class. This class allows photo students to independently create a significant body of work in photography. The class involves extensive production combined with group critique and faculty consultation. Topics have a wide variety including landscapes, skateboarding, skiing, and even food.  At the end of each semester, the students in Senior Capstone host a gallery critique where the students, staff, faculty, and community members come and examine their work.


Fall 2021 Senior Thesis Projects

Our Timeline photographed by Kai Beall

Our Timeline

Photographed by Kai Beall

Our relationship to ourselves and others changes throughout our life. With the origin of self being just a few cells, we evolve to be part of a shared world. We create relationships and accept the changes they bring. We explore independence vs otherness, and learn to connect with people who can support us through the chaos until we return to the simple matter of the universe. This timeline expresses the relationships that we hold throughout our life.

To see more of Kai's work, please check out their Instagram.

The North Entrance, photographed by Dani Hatfield

The North Entrance

Photographed by Dani Hatfield

Gardiner, Montana is known for one thing: being the north entrance of Yellowstone NationalPark. Taken at face value, the town consists of nothing more than the famous Roosevelt Arch,tourist trap gift shops, and more hotel beds than locals. However, the millions of yearly visitorsfail to notice the pockets of history scattered over the surrounding hillsides; tiny remnants of the
people who forged my hometown.
This project is an ode to Gardiner’s past and my own interaction with the history of my home. Itmarries my photographs of time altered sites with historical photographs that showcase how theGardiner Basin has changed over the course of the last century, preserving the memory of the people who settled the area and built the town that is now only known as the ‘North Entrance’.

To see more of Dani's work, please visit her website.

Before I Rot Away photographed by Tate Tominaga

Before I Rot Away

Photographed by Tate Tominaga

Before I Rot Away is an observational recording of spaces and places that have been left behind and forgotten, or just simply left abandoned reason or another. Whether the decision to leave these subjects behind was  a better business opportunity or a new life entirely, people will always be chasing the greener grass on the other side of the metaphorical fence. Through this projectI am bringing the abandoned eyesores into frontal view where viewers can look at the spaces and places that have been forgotten and ignored before disappearing forever.

To see more of Tate's work, please check out his Instagram

Heightened Awareness by Caden McCullough

Heightened Awareness

Photographed by Caden McCullough

Within our everyday lives we travel through our modern environment without a thought of what rests below our feet. Navigating through large buildings, driving along curving roads, and walking through parks feels ordinary and conventional. After becoming a pilot and spending hundreds of hours in the air, I have realized these common areas of everyday life often appea quite unusual and almost alien when seen from an aerial perspective. Seeing the true structur and design of these areas gives us insight on how our society really functions.

To see more of Caden's work, please check out his Instagram

 


Previous Student Work
Photographed by Emily AnderspoonPhotographed by Danielle MullensPhotographed by Emily AnderspoonPhotographed by Katie Macoy.Photographed by Kelsey WeyebacherPhotographed by Danielle MullensPhotographed by Eric HommePhotographed by Katie EfstathiouPhotographed by Elaine Nabors.Photographed by Paige WilliamsPhotographed by Tyler FortunePhotographed by a MSU Photo SeniorPhotographed by Paige WilliamsPhotographed by Rebecca TatarkaPhotographed by Tanner HouselogPhotographed by Tyler Fortune

Click on an image to view as a slideshow.