Photography MA

at Coventry University

Why you should study this course

The MA Photography course presents an exciting curriculum which emphasises support of your unique practice and how it relates to our professional and social responsibilities as image-makers.
 

• All members of the course team hold qualifications in teaching and learning in higher education and have extensive pedagogical experience alongside research profiles that position them as experts in particular areas of photographic practice – spanning family photography and the role of the studio, through photobooks and their readers, to photography as a participatory practice and the materiality of the archive.  
• The MA Photography course presents an exciting curriculum which emphasises support of your unique practice and how it relates to our professional and social responsibilities as image-makers. You will have freedom to experiment whilst also sharpening a specific and dedicated practice, standing you in great stead for a variety of roles after graduation. 
• The course will challenge traditional epistemologies of what the photograph, and what photography, is. Instead it will ask students to question the interstices of photography and object, photography and space, as well as medium and genre boundaries.
• We will explore the connection between the making, and the making public, of photographic work and processes. With a foundation of investigation and accompanying theoretical analysis, students will have the opportunity to develop and test their own publishing models which seek to connect work to appropriate and defined readerships.
• Students will interrogate the manner in which images perform different roles for different purposes; how they contribute to our understanding of the world, its geography, inhabitants and social structures.
   

What you'll study

The MA Photography course welcomes practitioners with diverse backgrounds and adopts an approach to photography which considers associated mediums and methodologies within an expanded field. In this manner students on the MA Photography programme will blur traditional genre and medium boundaries and may work with archives, produce installation pieces, publish, run collaborative projects or manage photographic events and performances.

The course has been constructed to provide essential places of experimentation and diversification of skills and knowledge, whilst also encouraging rigour in your practice which leads to its robust situation within social, political, and visual contexts. 
 

Modules
 

• Objects, Spaces and Boundaries – 20 credits

  Objects, spaces and boundaries aims to challenge traditional epistemologies of what the photograph, and what photography is. It will ask you to question the interstices of photography and object, photography and space, as well as medium and genre boundaries.  

  Compulsory
   

• Research Methods – 20 credits

  This module aims to provide you with the theoretical, conceptual, investigative and practical tools needed to develop your own independent research and comprehend which methods will best support your response to a particular research project.

  Compulsory
   

• Entrepreneurial Practice – 10 credits

  This CMI module1 aims to provide you with a framework of knowledge and understanding of how to effectively lead and develop people in a strategic and entrepreneurial way whatever the master’s degree of specialisation you elect to follow  

  Compulsory
   

• Collaborative Social Challenge Project - 10 credits

  This project module aims to allow you to develop your independent and collaborative working skills through a focussed application and response to a specific context. Working with peers from within School of Media & Performing Arts MA courses and/or external collaborators, you will seek to develop an interdisciplinary response to a live brief generated by addressing and engaging with a social challenge.  

  Compulsory
   

• Photography and Publics - 20 credits

  Compulsory
   

• Final Major Project (Research and Planning) – 30 credits

  The aim of this module is for you to develop a body of research-informed work in a specialism of your choosing, which demonstrates a critical awareness of current developments and trends in your area of practice/specialism. This work will form the basis of your final project.

  Compulsory
   

• Collaborative Community Project - 10 credits

  Compulsory
   

• Photographic Situations - 20 credits

  Photographic Situations presents and explores the myriad ways in which photography contributes to, and builds on, its contextual locations. The module takes as a starting point John Tagg’s notion that the history of photography is not singular, but instead intimately connected with its agents of employment and uses. You will look to interrogate the manner in which photography performs different roles for different purposes; how it contributes to our understanding of the world, its geography, inhabitants and social structures.  

  Compulsory
   

• Final Major Project (Production and Sharing) – 30 credits

  In this module, you will manage to completion a substantial piece of independent research practice that is informed by the wider contexts of your discipline, and is well-conceived, well-rounded, coherent and of a standard appropriate to Master’s level.

  Compulsory
   

• Collaborative Enterprise Project – 10 credits

  This project module aims to allow you to develop your independent and collaborative working skills through a focussed application and response to a specific context. Working with peers from within School of Media & Performing Arts MA courses and/or external collaborators, you will look to develop an interdisciplinary response to a live brief generated by exploring opportunities for enterprise within your practice. Students will explore potential routes to monetise your work and consider your role as a member of the future media and performing arts workforce.

  Compulsory

Applicants to this Master’s degree should normally possess a good honours degree (2:1 or equivalent) in a relevant subject. If the degree is in an unrelated subject, applicants need to demonstrate appropriate industry knowledge and experience in their application documentation.

Each application will be considered on its merits and the final decision will be made by the course director. For information regarding what might amount to ‘a related subject’ or’ equivalent professional background’ please fill in our request information form.

Non-traditional entry students are welcome: applicants without formal qualifications but professional/industrial experience may be admitted on the basis of interview and submission of supporting material (see below).

Each applicant will be required to include a short statement regarding their interest in studying on the MA Photography course at Coventry University (300-500 words) and are invited to include a link to an online portfolio in order that the course team can get to know their practice. All applicants will be offered a videoconferencing conversation as part of the application where they will have the opportunity to meet with a member of the course team and ask questions about the programme of study.  Candidates with professional/industrial experience, and/or other relevant training and experience may be admitted with lower qualifications.

English language requirements

• IELTS: 6.5 overall, with no component lower than 5.5. 

International Fees
£16,950 per year

International Pathways 2022 Scholarship

You could enjoy a £3,000 reduction in tuition fees.
Our high-quality foundation, international year one and pre-masters courses are for international students who do not meet the requirements for direct entry to their preferred Coventry University undergraduate or postgraduate course. We can support you to achieve the academic and/or English grades you need and help you gain the personal and professional skills required to study at university.

We want to encourage ambitious international students like you to study at Coventry University, so we’ve secured extra financial support for you worth £3,000, to help with the cost of tuition fees, living expenses and accommodation.

The scholarship application deadline is:
September 2022 intake: 31 July 2022

On successful completion of the course you will be able to:
 

• Identify, define and propose a creative and original body of work which is supported by advanced research and contextual understanding.
• Critically analyse photographs as well as their modes of production and display in socio-political contexts associated with a chosen field of photographic practice.
• Engage with a robust critical-creative process and apply advanced technical and methodological skills specific to the creation of photographic work.
• Experiment with, and critically evaluate, a variety of means by which photographic work can be communicated to identified audiences.
• Demonstrate the ability to work with, and synthesize, complex themes across written, oral and visual outputs.
• Collaborate with practitioners in associated fields to respond creatively to stimuli that relates to socio-political, technological and artistic environments.
• Explore opportunities arising in the global cultural industries for their photographic practice, and integrate these into their project, business or career aims.