Alyssa Bistonath

Alyssa is a tough grader, but gives you every single tool you need to succeed. You need to show up, and you need to pay attention, but she is amazing. Lectures can be a LITTLE bit of a slog, but she thrives in office hours and in more advisory, hands-on roles.

To echo another person's comment "it doesn't have meaning" is something I've heard when work is outside the span of documentary or abstract work. It feels as if she's pushing you in a certain direction without first seeing where you want to go, so critique can feel pointless. I have nothing personally against Alyssa as a person, just not my forte.

(MPS106) She never reminded us of upcoming assignment deadlines and never gave proper dates (only using week x). It was hard to keep up with that; otherwise, she was just okay. Alyssa seems like a nice person and is pretty friendly! But I wouldn't want to take her class again.

As long as you do documentary photography, you're fine. If you want to do literally anything else, having her is like pulling teeth. Doesn't give any critique for non-doc work except that it "doesn't have meaning," even if you write an essay about what the meaning of your work is! Incredibly frustrating and uninspiring. Made me want to drop out.

Shes okay, I would have preferred if she was more energetic when it comes to giving lectures and etc. I like her. Gave grades and feedback on time. Super negotiable when it comes to marks and projects. She doesn't respond to email too quickly, but tends to respond within the week.

Alyssa is a great prof. She always gave good feedback on assignments and she was supportive and open to questions. She gave a good amount of focus to the narrative of students photos/series which I really liked as it was a different approach compared to just looking at the technical side of things.

I though Alyssa was a great prof, some of my best work was done through the class with her help. Really focused on narrative and creativity as well as fostering ideas more so that the formal qualities of photography.

Alyssa is a very kind person. She is extremely understanding is forgiving, and always has something good to say during critiques. Though I wish she would be a little harsher at times, she is definitely a positive and supportive prof to have. Don't be scared by all the bad reviews. She runs a class that's very "you get what you put in".

Incoherent grading. Says one thing one day, does another the next. If you disagree with her publicly, be ready to have lower grades all semester. Subject matter is not difficult at all, quite simple, but assignment guidelines are not given until after due date and so you will redo them many times. Avoid if you can.

Doesn't tell us the expectations until the day an assignment is due. Expects us to read her mind... and when she does tell us stuff explicitly, the grade doesn't reflect it. She'll be really nice to your face and then give you a bad mark without telling you why. Impossible to please unless you're one of her favorites.