What you will study
You'll develop your creativity and photography through workshops and self-initiated projects. A programme of seminars, lectures, workshops and tutorials will enhance your learning and prepare you for your professional future. Our teaching relates your own ideas and ambitions to the critical, contemporary and historical contexts of photography.
The degree programme sets out to structure your learning and appreciation of, and about, photography and its potential through a process which identifies distinct aims and progress each year.
Modules
Years 1 and 2 are made up of four modules, each worth 30 credit points. Year 3 is made up of three modules – two worth 30 credits and one worth 60 credits. Typically a student must complete 120 credits at each level.
Year 1
In your first year, you'll become aware and critical of the range of photography practices and the possibilities of a personal photography practice. You will be encouraged to experiment with new approaches and techniques.
Core modules
Independent Photography Practice
30 credits
This module introduces the course. It introduces active learning, research and reflection through practical photography projects which lead from thematic and conceptual to self-initiated and developmental projects. These projects will involve increasing engagement with conceptual and thematic concerns utilising different methodologies for work. There is an emphasis on the self-initiated development of critical photography in response. You will develop and independently produce (with tutorial support) a body of work that can be considered "personal photography" arising from personal concerns. In effect, a committed and serious independent practice on reflection, rather than purely a set response to project briefs.
Photographic Production Processes
30 credits
This module's focus is on the attainment of an array of production and technical skills to expand and enhance the development of a personal (and professional standard) photographic language. It is primarily concerned with the development of a critical awareness of photography processes, photography and related transferable skills, research and critical thinking. It begins with active learning through skills based projects, both analogue and digital. All projects will encompass conceptual concerns, individual development and critical engagement with a photographic ‘way of seeing' and working with light, both natural and artificial, which lead from thematic and conceptual to self-initiated and developmental projects. Each project will be introduced and continue with technical workshops, group seminars a series of group project reviews. and individual tutorial support.
Modes of Presentation for Photographers
30 credits
In this module you will develop and progress further your independent photography and begin to engage with the moving image, extending your skillset and enhancing the potential for all image based work. The intention is for you to explore and exam the implications of different modes for editorial presentation with your photography and image making. You will be supported to develop appropriate methods of presentation through tutorials, workshops aligned with your contribution to the seminar programme where you show and discuss work-in-progress to your peer group. You will self-publish photographic books and other photographic series of works for summative assessment at the end of each teaching block.
Contextualising Contemporary Practice: Photography
30 credits
This module introduces the various contexts in which the contemporary practices of photography, are defined, debated and displayed. The module is designed to support your first steps as practitioners within the wider field of the visual arts in the 21st century. Through lectures, discussions, screenings and exhibition visits you will be introduced to the historical framework of modernity and post-modernity in order to understand the development and contemporary situation of your discipline. The module is organised as discrete but related teaching blocks that progress from broader questions of cultural practice to the more specific debates that have framed the historical development photography and its associated fields - for example moving images and fine art. In the first block, the emphasis is broad and focused on developing in you, an understanding of the notion of practice in the visual arts, by addressing the historical, theoretical, social and political factors that have affected our understanding of its function. In the second block, you will be encouraged to consider the key debates, theoretical questions and changing contexts that inform your discipline. Throughout there is an emphasis on the introduction of key analytical, critical and research skills, and through close engagement with visual sources, historical texts and contemporary critical writing, you will begin to develop the tools necessary to discuss, conceptualise and reflect on your own emerging practice.
Year 2
In Year 2, you will develop your own independent and self-directed photography practice with critical support. You will continue to develop your ideas, skills and folios in more depth.
Core modules
Independent Critical Practice
30 credits
You will develop portfolios of independent photography and other supporting research materials that demonstrate a growing awareness of the potential of photography across different genres and critical contexts. The development of an independent photographic practice is supported through lectures, group and peer review (not formally assessed), workshops and individual tutorials. You will be supported to challenge their working practices for photography and extend their critical abilities, research knowledge and understanding, as well as increase their visual communication and successfully resolve their photographic responses to readings of important historical and contemporary texts explored in class.
Photography and Process
30 credits
The module encourages and challenges you to make critical photographic projects responding to different subjects and contexts, focusing on process, audience and refinement of visual literacy. You will have the opportunity to participate in collaborative projects as well as work individually, building and increasing confidence in communication and working in partnership towards resolution. You will continue to use journals/workbooks/blogs as a means of analyzing your practice, context, research, critically reflecting on process and making evident your engagement with subjects and project themes.
Professional Practice and Presentation
30 credits
You will engage directly with professional practice working collaboratively and with a project partner organisation, responding to two 'live' professional briefs. Through this important developmental work process, you will consider the implications of different modes of engagement and presentation on your evolving independent photographic practices. You will develop and produce two new bodies of photographic work in response to the 'live' briefs (set by course team) which forms the core of your portfolio and your end of module presentation. You will then produce and present the folios' selected coursework content as an end of year group exhibition and/or publications as an introduction to professional creative skills development, which will be explored further during level 6. The 'live' briefs will support your working processes, methodologies and development of professional level transferable skills and knowledge that will equip you for professional life. Teaching and learning will be delivered through a series of lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials. Content will also include support and guidance on preparing a CV, writing supporting statements/letters focussed towards creative industries work, copyright, ethics and legal issues for photographers.
Critical Issues in Photography: Research and Practice
30 credits
Building on the historical contexts introduced at Level 4, this module concentrates on the theoretical frameworks in which photography is produced, consumed and interpreted today. Introducing case studies emerging from current trends in contemporary photographic practice, the module is taught as a combination of lecture, seminar, workshop and exhibition visits through which you will be encouraged and enabled to identify and experience the vital links between practice and research. The political, social, philosophical and aesthetic issues driving current practice will be introduced via lecture and seminar discussion, focused and deepened through independent reading and research, and applied and evaluated through workshops on research practice. With reference to key texts that have informed the development of photographic theory, you will acquire the knowledge and analytical skills to build a framework within which to engage with the critical contexts in which photography operates. You will also develop research methods appropriate to the study and practice of your discipline, propose an area of research for development at Level 6, and begin to contextualise and make sense of the concerns emerging in your own practice.
Optional year
You can opt to study or work abroad through the University's Study Abroad programme or the Erasmus programme during your Photography degree.
Final year
In Year 3, you will become proficient, professional, assured, innovative and outward-facing through a more fully realised and engaged personal photography practice. You will refine your photography and define your ambitions more succinctly.
Core modules
Professional Practice
30 credits
This module is concerned with the development, creation and evidencing of a range of vital professional skills: the ability to respond with limited lead time to a photography brief (using skills gained in Level 4 and L5); the creation of a professional work-seeker's photography portfolio; the ability to present and coherently rationalise work to an audience; the production of a relevant CV; evidence of a web-presence. The aim of this module is to ensure that you are well prepared to further a career in photography (and/or related fields) upon graduation and thereafter.
Final Major Project
60 credits
In this module you will produce and display a coherent body of independent photographic work. You are required to synthesise and consolidate practical skills, critical approaches and understanding of the context of contemporary photographic practice through the production and presentation of a major body of work including exhibition installation. You will develop and apply skills of editing, selection, sequencing, printing, framing and other appropriate presentation to produce this final portfolio and display of photographic works, enabling you to progress to professional practice or further study.
Dissertation: Research and Reflection
30 credits
Building on the links between research and practice embedded at Level 5, the Critical and Historical Studies (CHS) Dissertation: Research and Reflection module focuses on in-depth research, critical enquiry and reflection on questions and critical issues emerging in students' own practice, and pertinent to the practice of their own discipline.
Over the module, students will initiate and develop an individual research topic; identify and evaluate appropriate archives, bodies of critical literature, visual/material sources and research methods; manage their study time; engage with and respond to tutorial dialogue and peer feedback, and apply critical and analytical skills to produce a 7-8000 word written Dissertation, supported by a series of lectures, seminars and tutorials.
