BA (Hons) Photography

What's the course about?

If you want a career in photography, this is the course for you. Through a range of projects, you’ll explore and evolve your vision and practice in photography. Through practical workshops, you will learn technical expertise and through feedback and group sessions you will critique and expand your visual language. You’ll also study the theoretical side of photography, including its fascinating history and contemporary practices. Experimentation, creativity and collaboration are encouraged and facilitated throughout the course. The course has a clear industry focus that aims to develop your professional awareness. A key part of your Final Year is learning how to operate as a freelancer, interact with clients and approach potential employers. This culminates in the presentation of your final portfolio to employers and public-facing graduate shows.

Your main campus is College Lane   

This is where the creative arts, science and health-related subjects are based. This means you’ll share the campus with future nurses, scientists, artists and more. You can use the common rooms to relax with friends, work out in the 24-hour gym or have a drink in our on-campus pub or cafes. We also have restaurants for you to eat in or grab something on the go. Our Learning Resources Centres are open 24/7, which means you can study whenever suits you best. Want to pop over to the other campus? You can take the free shuttle bus or walk there in just 15 minutes.   

What will I study?

First Year

Delivered through hands-on workshops you will be introduced to a wide range of professional techniques and approaches to photographic image-making. Guided my lecturers you will look at studio and portable lighting, shooting in the studio and on location, digital workflow and how to retouch and manipulate images, technical theory and use of the darkroom in colour and black and white. Developing films and enlarging photographic images through traditional and alternative methods.

In group sessions you will use informal discussion to support your photographic work, gaining feedback, critical awareness and confidence. The study of the histories and theories of photography gives you a foundation for your practice both in class sessions and through written work.

You will complete the first year with a public facing-exhibition and a solid grounding in the fundamentals of photography through final photographic work, practice, research, writing and theory. You will have gained confidence in academic research and writing and be ready to jump up to the second year.

Second Year

During year two, you begin to define who you are as a photographic practitioner and to identify your professional goals. You respond to assignments and negotiated projects by considering professional concerns such as markets, audiences, clients and users of the photography industry.

Advanced photography and digital imaging skills are taught through lecture/demonstrations, workshop sessions and studio practice. This stage also introduces and develops your professional awareness and provides an opportunity to experience a 'live' working environment through industry-style briefs set by professional photographers and designers. There is scope for work experience and study abroad in Europe or further afield. There is a second-year final exhibition where, in groups, you will begin to put into practice skills around presenting and curating photography in a group show.

Final Year

In the final year, you will embark on a self-defined, extended project that allows the time to evolve to a more sophisticated outcome. You will choose a specialism area to work in for example documentary, fashion, still-life and you will spend the year making the kind of work you want to represent you as an emerging photographer.

You will develop a professional portfolio of photography with which to launch your career. The portfolio will demonstrate your professional versatility by including client-led work alongside a self-directed project full of personal vision, media expertise and professional standards. You will also write a dissertation or a report which identifies an area of contemporary professional practice relevant to your work and feeds into and supports the practical making.

A key part of your final year study is learning how to operate as a freelancer, interact with clients and approach potential employers. This culminates in the presentation of your exhibition work and portfolio in two separate degree exhibitions which are open to invited media industry employers and the public.

Level 4

Module

• Photography: Histories and Cultures
• Experimental Projects
• Digital Environment
• Photography Practices

Level 5

Module

• Year Abroad
• Photography: Applications and Cultures
• Negotiated Photography Projects
• Professional Development
• Photography Assignments

Level 6

Module

• Year Abroad
• Enterprise and Employability in the Photographic Industries
• Photography L6 Degree Essay / Report
• Professional Portfolio
• Concepts and Planning
• Degree Major Project
• Sandwich Year (Creative Arts)