BA (Hons) - Photography (with integrated foundation year)

Year one

Your introduction to photography will see you exploring a variety of lens-based and other creative media through contemporary and traditional ways of working. You will be experimenting and exploring photography using a variety of techniques and processes.

• Making Images
  An introduction to a wide range of conventional and unconventional image-making processes.
• Making Objects
  Examine a wide range of 3D processes in relation to a specific project brief.
• Visual Enquiry
  Develop your knowledge and understanding to enhance your research methods, contextual awareness, and an evaluative ability.
• Environment
  Explore your local environment using a range of inter-disciplinary practices such as graphic processes, drawing, 3D, photography, moving image, and collage/montage.
• Portfolio and Progression
  Produce a professional and substantial portfolio of work.

Year two

In your second year, you will focus on The Photographic Environment which deals with the cornerstone craft of photographic image capture, both analogue and digital, in application to and investigation of, your photographic interests.

Research and contextual skills will be established at this level as we introduce the work of significant photographers and explore how influences and themes can be tracked through history, thereby setting the stage for the development of your own work.

• Photographic Image Capture
  An introduction to technical skills in digital & analogue photographic contexts.
• Cultural Contexts
  An introduction to the cultural, historical and social contexts in which creative work from a range of disciplines will be considered
• Picturing Place: Culture & Identity
  Explore the idea of place; different environments, cultures and identities informed by locale.
• Collaborative Practice
  Develop your ability to collaborate in professional scenarios through problem-solving and project-based learning.

Year three

In your third year, you will explore the Relevant Photograph. This attends to socially engaged practice. Working with the local community and culture with input from industry professionals you will learn to apply your craft to a greater purpose. You will also develop your contextual explorations into photographic theory, critical thinking, and analysis.

We have developed an enrichment module in year two where you can experience and practice traditional techniques and cutting-edge technologies.

Creating the space for experiment and play is enormously valuable in promoting creativity, problem-solving skills, risk-taking, and imagination. The module is intended to expand your practice skills midway through your degree enabling you to explore your own potential and readying you for a more focused journey through your final year and employment beyond that.

• Networks & Narratives: Photography in the Community
  Explore contemporary themes in photography.
• Immersive Image-Making
  Enrich your personal photographic practice by experimenting with both traditional and cutting-edge technologies.
• The Photographic Interface: Industry Experience
  An opportunity to explore your practice through a range of briefs set by industry professionals.
• Theorising Photography
  Develop the skills to think critically and generate original ideas informed by examples of influential scholarship.

Year four

Your final year will revolve around an Independent Showcase where you will take full charge of your own practice and bring it into the public domain.

Research, practice and professional skills come together in the final year of study to refine and showcase your personal vision and expression of photographic practice. At this point, you will be an independent, intelligent and competent practitioner with a personal portfolio representing the breadth of your skill and the depth of your engagement.

• Blueprint of Practice
  Refine your autonomous photographic practice through the synthesis of research and creativity.
• Independent Research Paper
  Develop specialised and focused knowledge and understanding of a subject of your own choice.
• Resolution of Practice
  Carry out a self-designed, in-depth, and investigative personal project.