Photography BA (Hons)

Modules

Modules are assessed by projects, essays and presentations.

Methods of assessment for course overall: 99% coursework

• Documentary Photography
  In this module you'll work on projects that involve interaction with people and their environment; you'll be introduced to visually exploring the world around you, using photography as a documentary practice to communicate to an audience. You'll be introduced to carrying out primary research into the subject of a brief, and visual and theoretical research into ways of using photography.
• Photo Imaging: Studio and Lab
  This module introduces you to a professional digital work flow, from image capture through to output for screen and print. Through a number of short briefs, based on commercial and editorial commissions, you'll develop their skills with digital SLR's, photographic lighting and digital post production. You'll be introduced to working with both natural light on location, and working in the studio.
• Contemporary Photography Commissions
  In this module you'll develop awareness of contemporary photographic practice through a series of briefs that explore different types of photography commissions. The module will consist of 3 simulated live briefs and one commission set in conjunction with an external client.
• Digital Image Construction
  This module develops your ability with digital image capture, in the studio and on location. Making use of digital post production techniques you'll develop retouching and image manipulation skills. Responding to briefs, both individually and as part of a team, you'll develop your ability to produce visually inventive, creative imagery for screen and print.
• The Emergence of Photography
  This module offers a thematic approach to studying histories and theories of photography, from the earliest experiments in the 1830s to the digital forms of today. Photography refuses any attempt to fix its identity, likewise any narration of the photographic is unstable, contested and in a perpetual state of flux. This story is a multifaceted adventure that takes us to the centre of art and visual culture of the last 200 years. The emphasis is on connections between theory and practice, word and image, and developing your abilities to articulate themselves when writing and speaking about images.
• Convergent Media Frameworks
  This module introduces you to some of the ways in which convergence in art and media culture is being discussed within academia and how artists and practitioners have worked within, responded to and challenged those definitions. It will introduce you to reading academic argument and discussions with contemporary media practitioners. It will provide an overview of the emerging forms of convergent media and their accompanying debates. It will examine the use of interactive computer media by musicians, filmmakers, games developers, animators, photographers, designers and artists in relationship to online practices as well as in installed contexts. It will pay particular attention to questions of digital aesthetics, interactivity and navigation.

• Fashion, Editorial and Advertising photography
  In this module you'll explore the use of digital photography in fashion, editorial and advertising contexts. You'll generate a project and create a portfolio of images, of a conceptual and technical quality suitable for one of these contexts. Skills appropriate for commercial uses of photography will be delivered through workshops in medium format digital cameras, digital post production, and output for web and print portfolios. On completion of the project you'll present your portfolio of work to a panel in the format of a portfolio review.
• Photography and the Gallery
  In this practice based module you'll create a body of photographic work for a gallery context. The module examines the wider political, cultural and social context of the galley and explores photography's relationship to both the gallery and fine art practices. You'll produce work of a conceptual and technical quality to be shown in a gallery based exhibition.
• Self-Publishing and the Photobook
  In recent years developments in digital technology and advances in home printing and print on demand services have led to a rapid increase in photographers self-publishing books, outside of the traditional publishing models. At the same time independent and mainstream publishing houses have increased their output of photobooks. In this module you'll explore the photobook as a means for disseminating work and creating an audience. Each student will photograph, design and create a photobook. Collectively you and your group host an event at which your books can be seen and purchased by an audience.
• Professional Practice and Promotion
  In the first semester of this module you'll work as a group to explore ways of disseminating their work in a professional context. In the second semester you'll develop a portfolio and undertake a period of work experience. Through the development of a physical and/or online digital portfolio you'll start to bring together different projects including individual practice based work and a record of your group work and work experience. A visiting lecturer program will support this module providing insight into a multitude of possible career options and different forms of professional practice.
• Contemporary Photographic Debates
  This module explores the critical and cultural contexts for contemporary photographic practice, with an emphasis on the relationship between photography and network culture. Now that the majority of photographs are produced, shared and viewed online, how are the meanings and functions of photography and media changing? How, as photographers, are we responding to and reflecting upon our increasingly online and screen-based lives and realities? In order to answer these questions, you'll be introduced to a range of work by practitioners and writers, and encouraged to reflect on the relationship between theory and practice in your own work.
• Collaborative Practices (Shared Option)
  This Module allows you across multiple creative media disciplines to collaboratively address a conceptually framed brief, and to see a project through from initial idea to final production. The module will operate in option mode with a number of briefs set each year, reflecting current topics from which you can opt for a first and second choice.
Year 3

• Pilot Major Project
  This module develops your individual photographic practice, and your ability to locate their practice within the contemporary photography industry. Research into historic and contemporary photographic theory and practice enables you to develop a critical framework in which to consider your work. Having chosen a context for your work (e.g. a commercial portfolio, the gallery, the book, the screen) you'll develop and complete a self-directed photographic project within this area.
• Major Project
  In this module you'll complete a major, self-directed body of work, for an identified context. In the production of the work you'll undertake in-depth research into both the subject of the work, and the contemporary photographic context in which you plan to locate the work. The final presentation will be suitable for this context and demonstrate an understanding of the contemporary photography industry and how their work relates to a particular area of the industry.
• Professional Practice
  In this module you'll develop your professional skills in preparation for entering the industry, or for progression to postgraduate study. Through the development of a physical and/or digital portfolio you'll develop a professional identity and edit different practical work together in a coherent manner, targeted towards identified audiences. You'll undertake a period of work experience and identify a professional mentor and seek feedback on your work from industry professionals. A visiting lecturer programme will support this module providing insight into a multitude of possible career options and different forms of professional practice. As part of the module you'll participate in individual or group projects that will develop your professional practice skills.
• Research Paper
  The final year research paper module gives you the opportunity to conduct original research in an area of their degree or field of interest. The research paper allows you to use any of the theories, topics and methods encountered on your course. You'll manage your own learning under the guidance of an academic supervisor. Lectures will offer general advice and guidance on research methods and describe different ways of approaching and structuring the research paper. The way your own research paper is organised and structured is best decided in consultation with the your supervisor.

The course at LSBU has not only increased my technical ability and confidence within the visual medium but has also developed my skill-set and business mind preparing me for the start of my photographic career.

Will Ainsworth, BA (Hons) Photography (2013)