Shutterbugs can now make a career out of their talent at Walla Walla College (WWC). A photography minor was recently added to the technology department's options, and a new photojournalism concentration for communication majors will be offered beginning fall quarter of 2004.

A survey of incoming students during College Days last spring indicated much interest in photojournalism, prompting the new concentration. Several corresponding new courses have been created, including advanced photojournalism, directed photojournalism project and newspaper staff photographer practicum.

“It gives students a whole lot of options and improves their employability,” says Nancy Semotiuk, associate professor of communication, of the new additions. Semotiuk will teach all communication-based classes for photojournalism.

In the technology department, the photography minor was also created to meet demand, and the curriculum draws from existing courses with an interdisciplinary approach. Students take classes that help them develop visual skills that extend beyond the mechanics of photography.

“We’re requiring classes like drawing and video because I have the basic viewpoint that composition is composition is composition,” says Shane Hinshaw, assistant professor of graphics. “If we have those universal concepts in place, we can only strengthen that by looking at it from a variety of disciplines.” The next step, he says, is to develop more specific course offerings, such as studio lighting, composition theory and digital photography. These additions could come within the next two years, according to Hinshaw.