Level: Undergraduate
Study Mode: Full time / Part time
Duration: 1 year (full time)2 years (part time)
Application: to UCAS (full-time)Direct to the College (part-time)
Application Deadline: 15 Jan 2010
UCAS Course Code: W641
Institution Code: H18
Validated By: University of Gloucestershire
The photographic/media/ communications industry is ever changing, meeting and adopting through necessity, new methods, technologies, applications, philosophies and social trends. The industry now cuts across what only recently may have been referred to as quite specific and identifiable skills areas, each having its own technology discipline and context within which to operate.
‘Photography has become the heterotypic post modern medium through its ability to brush aside and blur the boundaries between art and commerce. It is encountered in every arena of many societies and is fundamental to the flow and passage of knowledge within their systems of communication’
Michael Mack, 1996, Surface: Contemporary Photographic Practice
The course programme whilst demanding technical excellence and control will primarily be concerned with the ‘Image’, its inherent communicative, persuasive and manipulative qualities, the context in which it is used and the social, historical and contemporary issues that emerge as a consequence. It will foreground the understanding and use of the ‘Image’ as a means of, and a tool for, communication and personal comment.
The emphasis and delivery of the course programme will seek to examine and promote the notion of the ‘image maker’ rather than the ‘image taker’.
This course is validated by University of Gloucestershire
The course programme provides the context for a more sustained and personal approach to theoretical photographic practice and practical development, enabling as a consequence the development of an advanced understanding of the medium and an ability to undertake critical and informed analysis, and subsequent application.
It is anticipated at this level students will be self motivated and, to an increasing extent, working independently of direct tutorial supervision. Such support will exist but it will serve to aid and support students in making the transition from course based activity to that which is more aligned with the standards and professional expectation of actual photographic practice professionally.
The course programme is divided into four units running in parallel throughout the year (although they may be approached sequentially if appropriate) each contributing to the other in terms of defining personal practice and professional awareness. They are:
Personal Practice 1
Personal Practice 2
The Public Domain
Theory and Practice
The units will offer the creative space where students, having reached a level of sustained independent self development, can make a definitive personal statement about their specialist practice. The body of work produced marks a point of arrival in the ongoing process of achieving a recognisable and personal photographic identity and a point of departure for the development and production of a resolved and mature body of work that will demonstrate and measure a critical understanding of the students’ place within contemporary practice.
In year two, students identify a personal theme as well as particular areas of the illustration industry that are appropriate to their developing strengths.
The conclusions from this period of study are defined prior to the third year, as all subsequent work is based on discoveries made in the second year.
Students work in an increasingly self-directed manner, with a developing emphasis on adaptability. In addition to the programme of Cultural and Professional Studies, second year students begin formulating a business plan for development in year three.
On graduation you can expect to be in a position where you are able to establish your own practice across a range of photographic activities such as photojournalism, travel, corporate identity, industrial, architectural, scientific, medical, advertising and fashion, exhibition and book publication. A range of non practical options exist such as studio management, gallery management and journalism.
Successful completion of a Foundation Degree (FdA) or HND in a related subject
Portfolio
English as a second language: IELTS 6.0 at enrolment
All applications to our Full Time Higher Education courses should be made via UCAS – for more details on how to apply, click here
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