Photography

MA Photography

We expect our students to produce not only images but also analytical thinking in order to study what photography is, for the purpose of discovering what it can become. We anticipate that the photographic practices that students bring to the department will range from studio-based constructed images to documentary interpretations of our cultural and social environment. While retaining photography as a core discipline, we also welcome students whose work engages with the moving image. The students’ work is therefore diverse and linked by an interest in questions of meaning, spectatorship and representation. The department offers a context in which students can articulate ideas through making their work and can reflect critically on what they have made.

Learning and Teaching
Teaching is based on individual and group tutorials, critical studies seminars, group crits and lectures by leading artists and theorists. Students have the opportunity to participate in relevant workshops that deal with technical and conceptual aspects of photographic practice. Weekly critical-studies seminars address contemporary photographic practices and draw upon theories of representation informed by aesthetics, semiotics and psychoanalysis.

Exhibitions and Exchanges
Apart from the Show for final-year students, there are also interim work-in-progress exhibitions in the College galleries. In addition, the Hockney Gallery in the Stevens Building can be booked for individual or group projects. We are also able to offer occasional exchanges with the New York School of the Visual Arts, the Cité Des Arts, Paris and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Critical & Historical Studies
As part of the experience of being at the RCA, all MA students, except those in the School of Humanities, attend a programme of lectures organised by the Department of Critical & Historical Studies during their first year at the College. This work culminates in the submission of a dissertation, which is a requirement for all MA students.

Professional Practice
The Photography Department supports career development by tailoring professional practice provision for students to the culture of the discipline. Information, training and advice on work and life skills are also available centrally through FuelRCA

Entrance Requirements

• You are generally expected to have a good BA degree from a photography or fine-art course.
• You should be able to demonstrate an original and critical approach to photography as well as an ability to engage with current theories of art and culture which inform their practice.

Portfolio

• Your portfolio must be well edited and include a selection of recently completed work which should not exceed 20 prints.
• Edited video or DVD should be a maximum of 5–7 minutes long. We do not accept CD-ROMs at this stage of the exam.
• Portfolios should not exceed A2 size.
• Students living abroad may send slides instead of a portfolio, but prints are always preferred.

Interview (if invited)
You will be interviewed by three members of the academic staff and a student representative.