Since the Bauhaus School instituted photography as part of its core curriculum, the study of photography has become an essential part of the visual and plastic arts education. During the 1960s and '70s, everybody wanted to be a photographer—do his or her "thing" with the camera: Antonioni's Blow-Up seduced a generation. The teaching of photography rose from the basement to the main floor of colleges and universities. During this period, the School of Visual Arts developed one of the most comprehensive undergraduate photography programs in the world; with the nascence of the digital age in the late 1980s, the college recognized the need for integrating photography into the "realm of the circuit." Charles H. Traub was appointed to build a graduate program that would be innovative and lead the field in this pursuit. For the past 20 years, MFA Photography, Video & Related Media has been lauded for achievements in the integration of new theories, contexts and techniques of an evolving, creative medium.