Features

“Not Yet, Yet Still,” the upcoming thesis exhibition from the MPS Digital Photography class of 2025, opens at the SVA Gramercy Gallery later this month, and it’s already shaping up to be one of the program’s most thematically relevant and formally adventurous showcases in recent years. Every fall, the graduating class presents projects that explore the possibilities of photographic practice, and this edition features artists stretching the medium through approaches ranging from 3D imaging and multimedia collage to digital manipulation and portraiture.

Across the exhibition, themes of migration, identity, and heritage emerge as artists draw on family histories and personal journeys. Their work spans dislocation, spirituality, and ancestral connection, expressed through approaches that move across borders, generations, and mediums.

“There is a recurring theme of being in-between; neither quite here, nor quite there,” writes curator Debra Klomp Ching, the New York gallerist tasked with organizing this year’s show. “The idea about who we are, what we have been, and who we can be is explored in varying ways, including the passage of time.” 

Tom P. Ashe, chair of the MPS Digital Photography program, says, “These 10 artists have bravely explored the uncomfortable in-between spaces, where most of us live, and those beyond our imagination. The constant changes that come from evolution, migration, age, culture lost and found are with us one way or another and really one of the most consistent parts of being human.”

“Not Yet, Yet Still” reflects a sense of fluidity and transformation, capturing both uncertainty and possibility in the present moment. The show runs September 27 through October 18 at 209 East 23rd Street (SVA Way).

The long-running i3: Images, Ideas, Inspiration lecture series continues this fall for those looking to engage even more deeply with the department’s programming. On September 23, New York-based fine art photographer and Hasselblad Master Ali Rajabi will give a public lecture, followed by editorial photographer Henry Leutwyler on October 7. Both events are free and open to the public. Additionally, the department will host enrollment Q&A sessions on September 18 and October 4 for prospective students curious about applying to the program.