Level: Undergraduate
Study Mode: Full Time / Part Time
Duration: 3 years (full time), 6 years (part time)
Application: To UCAS (full time), Direct to College (part time)
Application Deadline: 15 Jan 2010
UCAS Course Code: W643
Institution Code: H18
Validated By:

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 BA (Honours) in Photography, whilst demanding technical excellence and control, will primarily be concerned with a critical examination of 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 still image as a means of, and a tool for, communication and personal comment and the subsequent development of an idiosyncratic personal practice.

Fueled by the erosion of traditional parameters, which historically have been centred on specific media and processes, the programme will be concerned with the critical analysis (reaction and compliance) of ‘established’ contemporary practice, its production and audience and the creative potential of emergent new technologies.

Its emphasis and delivery will seek to examine and promote the notion of the ‘image maker’ rather than the ‘image taker

The programme will be modular based, but students will be encouraged not to consider each in isolation, but to cut across and compare one with another, resolving constraints and realising potential. It will not prescribe the range or level of skills to be acquired but will enable students to develop appropriate skills as determined by them, their work and emerging specialisms.

Course delivery will be varied and provocative, seeking to stimulate rather than dictate, to go beyond personal suppositions and assumed associations.

For the purposes of delivery the programme will be divided into three distinct phases, Exploratory, Diagnostic and Cumulative. Each phase enables and defines a specific range of course and student based activities, although collectively they are considered as one forming an integrative matrix of experiences and demands which contribute to the diagnosis and establishment of a specialist area of personal practice. Throughout progressive emphasis is placed upon the notion of independent practice and the necessary organisational and interpersonal skills which will underpin such activity. Each phase is further subdivided into modules in order to refine and define the delivery of specific elements of the course programme.

Year One
(Exploratory)
Cultural Studies Photography in Context
Visual Language Windows
Visual Language - Mirrors
Professional Practice – Studio
Professional Practice – Location

Year Two
(Diagnostic) 
Cultural Studies Representation and Meaning
Visual Language – Referents and Ideologies
Visual Language – Multiple Image
Visual language – Personal Philosophies
Professional Practice – Negotiated Practice

Year Three
(Cumulative)
Cultural Studies – Dissertation
Personal Practice 1
Personal Practice 2
The Public Domain

The modules will offer the creative space where students can evolve and consequently make a definitive personal statement about their specialist practice. The cumulative body of work produced at the end of the course will both demonstrate a critical understanding of the students place within contemporary practice and mark a point of ‘arrival’ in the ongoing process of achieving a recognizable and personal photographic identity.

On graduation you can expect to be in a position where you are able to establish your own practice across a range of photographic activity such as photo journalism, travel, corporate identity, industrial, architectural, scientific, medical, advertising and fashion, exhibition and book publication. A range of non practical options also exist such as studio management, gallery and arts management and journalism.

Minimum age 18
Successful portfolio interview
200 UCAS Tariff Points
Mature Students with related experience

English as a second language: IELTS score 6.0 or equivalent on enrolment

All applications to our Full Time Higher Education courses should be made via UCAS – for more details on how to apply, click here

For details regarding funding and bursaries please click here