Lenscratch Features Cranbrook's Photography MFA Program, A Conversation with Chris Fraser
Chris Fraser, Asterisms
Cranbrook Academy of Art’s Photography program is featured in Lenscratch‘s ongoing series In Focus: The MFA Review, a practical resource for prospective graduate students navigating MFA programs in the photographic arts. Compiled by Daniel George, the installment offers an in-depth look at the program’s identity, structure, and philosophy through a candid conversation with Head of Photography and Artist-in-Residence Chris Fraser.
“Photography is our shared point of departure but not our destination. We lean on the medium much as a toddler leans on a table — to support ourselves as we learn to walk.”
“We have a mantra in the department: no art, just inquiry. The artist who enters the studio with a goal in mind too often ends up with a thing that looks, but fails to behave, like art.”
“I have as many curricula as students. That makes my job harder but more rewarding.”
“I’ve seen students transform over the course of a spring, from insecure makers who deflect hard questions to confident makers at ease with discomfort.”
Chris Fraser in his Cranbrook studio at OPEN STUDIOS 2025. Photos by Sarah C Blanchette.
The full feature covers the program’s approach to interdisciplinary work, Cranbrook’s no-grades, no-set curriculum structure, Fraser’s own practice in camera-making and room-sized optical phenomena, and what it really means to mentor rather than teach. Read it in full at Lenscratch.
Learn more:
Photography at Cranbrook Academy of Art
Scholarships & Fellowships at Cranbrook Academy of Art
How to Apply to Cranbrook Academy of Art
