Photography BA (Hons) module details

Year one

Photography Ideas and Practice

This module introduces you to the technical, creative and thematic components of still image capture and production. You will explore both darkroom and studio-based photography practices and are encouraged to explore the medium by engaging with the history of photography and components of the photographic image.

Assessment

Research and development portfolio, 100%: You will produce an extensive research and development portfolio that reflects your learning within this module, including a portfolio of images and written reflections.

Moving Image Ideas and Practice

This module introduces you to the tools, techniques, creative methodologies and visual research methods used in making and interpreting moving images. The principles of moving image production, including video capture, editing, sound capture and manipulation, cinematography and lighting for moving image are introduced alongside appropriate research methodologies.

Assessment

Research and development portfolio, 100%: You will create and research and development portfolio consisting of moving image-based works both individually and as a group and reflect on your production skills.

Contextual and Visual Research

This module provides a sequential overview of developments in photography and lens-based media from 1839 through the 1980s. You will understand photography and moving image as a cultural activity with emphasis on its historical, documentary, and social value as well as its own aesthetic developments during this period. You will produce visual and written work that investigates and responds to relationships between practitioners and their grounding within theory.

Assessment

Annotated Bibliography, 50%: An annotated bibliography.

Research and development portfolio, 50%: You will create a portfolio of visual responses to lectures and workshops, engaging with the concepts, histories, theories and ideas discussed within sessions.

Presenting and Contextualising Your Work

This module introduces you to the processes and practices relevant to producing work for an audience. You will explore the many ways in which photography and moving image work can be presented and create a body of work that is guided by the form in which they will be presented. You will be encouraged to take a creative and experimental approach to making work, and to engage with the reflection of their methodology through a contextual/reflective journal.

Assessment

Portfolio, 50%: This is a production project comprising of a photobook or short film.

Reflective Journal, 50%: You will write a journal that considers the historical, critical, ethical and individual circumstances surrounding the production of your project.

Year two

Experimental and Emerging Practice

This module challenges you to become more autonomous in your creative practice and research as you instigate, develop and then realise a creative still and/or moving image project. You are introduced to a variety of experimental and creative frameworks to lens-based production and beyond. Workshops explore how photographic and moving image work interconnect with other artistic and commercial practices.

Assessment

Research and development, 40%: You will produce an extensive research and development book that supports your portfolio.

Portfolio, 60%: You will create a portfolio of images, moving image work, or other experimental approach.

Critical Research and Contemporary Visual Culture

This module focuses on ideas that have influenced the production, dissemination and interpretation of lens-based media’s manifold roles in society. You engage in a critical examination of theories of image making from historical and contemporary perspectives, while engaging with a series of visiting artist lectures. You will consider lens-based production in relation to other media including film, painting, sculpture, and the digital world.

Assessment

Artist Talk and Reading Reflections, 50%: You will select from a variety of artist talks and readings to effectively summarise and critically reflect upon them.

Essay, 50%: You will write an essay in response to a negotiated research question.

Studio Practice: Themes and Techniques

This module presents you with an in-depth refinement of the skills, concepts and theories of contemporary lens-based production, offering an opportunity for development in both photography and moving image production. Emphasis is placed on assigned and self-directed briefs that examine critical and aesthetic issues related to both commercial and fine art photographic and moving image practices. A series of technical and creative workshops allow you to experiment with advanced and experimental modes of image production.

Assessment

Research and development, 50%: You will create a portfolio that collects images and written work in relation to thematically driven work.

Portfolio project, 50%: You will create a collection of 20 images.

Curation and Exhibition

This module introduces you to the professional side of image production and display through a series of creative industry focused briefs designed to develop your working knowledge of the ways in which images are presented, displayed and disseminated in a variety of contexts. You will explore the history and process of curation and public display, take part in planning and marketing a group exhibition, and understand how to present your own work to a variety of audiences.

Assessment

Essay, 40%: You will write a contextualising exhibition review that explores a current exhibition, describing how the exhibition conforms to industry standards, ethical and intellectual property concerns, while also breaking down its historical grounding and impact within contemporary culture.

Project proposal, 60%: This is a group project where you will develop, plan and outline exhibition ideas to create a proposal for a real or imagined exhibition space.

Year three

Final Major Project Development

This production and research focused module will provide you with the opportunity to produce an experimental body of practical work in your own specialist area of image production. You will support your project with research and development demonstrating creative and technical growth.

Assessment

Experimental portfolio with research and development, 100%: You will create a portfolio of 8-12 original images, or moving image equivalent, alongside outlining the research and practice behind your work.

Critical Research

This module will enable you to undertake critical research within an area of creative lens-based practice. You will develop a focus on critically considered practitioners, theories and histories which are contextually related to the area of practice that you are working in for your Final Major Project.

Assessment

Annotated Bibliography, 30%: An annotated bibliography.

Critical Essay, 70%: An essay.

Final Major Project

This production and research focused module will provide you with the opportunity to refine and expand on your experimental body of practical work in their own specialist area of image production. You will produce final body of practical work which will typically form the basis of your degree show exhibition, alongside an investigational researched-based portfolio.

Assessment

Final major project, 100%: You will create a major project portfolio with research and development and an artist statement.

Professional Practice

This module guides you in preparing a variety of visual and written materials relating to your chosen career track. You will and explore the contextual nature of lens-based creative practice, produce both visual and written materials based around a self-negotiated project, and produce a media profile suited to the dissemination of your creative work. You will also work to a live client brief, learning how to select the most appropriate creative strategies when working with audiences, clients, consumers and markets.

Assessment

Portfolio 1, 60%: You will create a portfolio responding to a client brief.

Portfolio 2, 40%: You will create a media profile focusing on external professional development.