Waterford School is Utah's premier private college-preparatory school for students in preschool through grade 12. The school offers an extensive liberal arts curriculum including one of the top high school photography programs in the nation. Led by Andrew Patteson and Brock Mickelson, the program is unrivaled in the State of Utah. Waterford photography students have been honored with multiple regional and national awards over the past several years.
The Photography curriculum ranges from a one-term required course in grade 8 to our two-year AP Photography program, available to our most dedicated Juniors and Seniors. Students who choose to pursue Photography in Upper School get to work in a facility that includes:
- Two Mac digital labs with a total of 44 stations and eight wide-format inkjet printers (up to 44” wide)
- Fully equipped lighting studio
- 17 station wet darkroom for printing 35mm up to 4×5 film
- Film and alternative processing room
- Extensive display space
We pursue a fine art curriculum that centers around digital capture, processing with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, and fine inkjet printing. We also offer courses in traditional darkroom photography, photo history, video art, and a hybrid alternative process course.
Students receive an extensive grounding in the technical aspects of capturing, processing, and presenting images. We teach these skills with the purpose of building a toolkit that allows our students to explore their own expressive potential and to begin the process of discovering each young artist’s individual voice.
