VCU Department of Photography & Film names award-winning new chairman

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RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia Commonwealth University has named award-winning photographer Jim Long as the new chair of the Department of Photography and Film in VCU's nationally acclaimed School of the Arts.  

Long earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Architecture from the University of Kansas, Lawrence. His photographs, videos and paintings have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions and published in books and magazines in the United States, Europe and Asia. In addition, Long is the recipient of several important awards, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Professional Fellowship for his photography, which he received in May.

His photographs are part of the permanent collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the Baltimore Museum of Art. He has also completed many building, interior and lighting design projects for clients across the United States. He is an author of the second edition of "The New Munsell Student Color Set," as well as an upcoming book about color and the computer.

VCU's School of the Arts created the Department of Photography and Film in 1969.  Photographer George Nan served as the first chairman, and under Nan's guidance the M.F.A. degree program was launched in 1978. The undergraduate program in Photography and Film was inaugurated in 2000 under past chairman, Dale Quarterman. 

This year, members of the Photography and Film Department won an unprecedented six out of the 24 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Foundation fellowships in the categories of professional, graduate, and undergraduate. An alumna and former faculty member won a professional fellowship, and four out of the 10 undergraduate artist fellowships went to students in the department.

The VCU School of the Arts' Master of Fine Arts programs are ranked sixth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Long says he plans to continue the tradition of excellence that has made VCU's Department of Photography and Film the program to watch in the country.