Meeting & Agendas

The.DPP (The Department of Professional Photography) is a workforce program organized under the Arts and Digital Media Division (ADM) at Austin Community College. In 2020 we will move to a new campus, Highland, where all departments in the division will be housed together (Professional Photography, Art, Creative Design Technologies (Gaming) Creative Writing, Dance, Drama, Music and Music Business Performance, Radio/Television/Film and Visual Communication). Our current enrollments are at 175-185 students. This number has been stable over the last year and a half, with the student demographic roughly consisted of 60% women, 40% men. We have crafted a mission to serve students as The.DPP: What we do is offer degrees, certificates and courses in the craft and business of photography. How we do it is by teaching impeccable technical skills in a workforce program that instill the dexterity earned at the finest institutions of higher education. Why we are here is to help students define and prepare for a professional photographic life.

We have created and distributed 7 individually named degree maps (specializations) with you that all feature close parity in the first two semesters, differentiating in classes in the third and fourth semesters, relevant to a students chosen area of specialization. Visual Workflow Design is a new class, that is set to offer students an additional introduction and pathway into our program. Sean then gave more specific details regarding fundamentals, visual media workflow and independent study year one then opened the room for questions. The board discussed at length their thoughts and support on the degree specializations and new classes. Included in this discussion was the overwhelming consensus that the department should look at offering real world “internships”, change the name of independent study to “Directed Study”. The board agreed the catalyst of moving to Highland Campus is a tremendous opportunity to engage and recruit from the more cross discipline studies available and and being developed. The board unanimously approved the recommended changes to the curriculum, courses, degree maps.

The Semester Reviews + Exhibition will replace the department’s previous semester ‘Print Show’ to provide students with contemporary real world experience by presenting their work via critical portfolio reviews. Student’s photographs will be carefully curated from this process to produce a bi-annual exhibition, framed and installed at our new Highland campus.

We continue to seek and hire exemplary new talent, and we are proud to announce that this fall we were joined by a new adjunct Lizzie Chen, and this Spring our adjunct pool will grow with the addition of Leslie Baldwin, Sarah Wilson, and Meg Mulloy. Lizzie Chen is a documentary photographer and multimedia producer based in Austin, TX. Her work has been published broadly, including NPR News, The Guardian, PBS Newshour, NBC News, Philly Inquirer, Smithsonian Asian Pacific Islander Center, The Center for Public Integrity, LBJ Presidential Library, KUT News and the Texas Observer. Sarah Wilson is an Emmy award winning photographer + cinematographer based in Austin, TX. A Texas native, she began her career in NYC interning for photographer Mary Ellen Mark. Her assignment and personal work have been featured in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Texas Monthly, The Atlantic, and Mother Jones among others. Sarah is also co-founder of Go-Valley with her husband and director Keith Maitland, producing documentary films including, TOWER and A SONG FOR YOU: The Austin City Limits Story. Leslie Baldwin began her career in NYC as office manager for photographer and illustrator, Matt Mahurin. She transitioned to the editorial staff at TIME Magazine before returning to Texas, where she served as Photography Editor at Texas Monthly. Meg Mulloy completed a BA in History at the University of Virginia, and later earned a master's in Photography at the Brooks Institute in California. She has traveled extensively, visiting 20+ countries and has taught photography for almost a decade at the Art Institute of Austin. She specializes in Architecture and Interiors and is represented by Wonderful Machine, serving editorial, commercial, and retouching clients.

We are set to move to HLC Summer of 2020. In depth conversation followed about student creatives being able to collaborate in new ways.