You’ll be in an experimental and critical environment in which to practice photography, learning from acknowledged experts in the field, and developing your understanding of the place of photography in contemporary culture. You’ll access traditional analogue processes and the most recent digital technology, experiencing a whole range of photographic processes and technologies. We’ll help you to build a strong creative practice with sound theoretical understanding, experiment towards innovative practices, develop your own personal style and realise your creative vision. In the final year you will create a major project for public display, helping you to develop professional confidence, transferable skills and providing an excellent springboard for your career in the field.

What I like about this course is that you can publicly exhibit your work which would be good because then you could see what the public would think of your images and whether people were attracted to your sort of theme. Furthermore, you could volunteer during the Brighton Photo Biennial with Photoworks, the Brighton based organisation that produces the biennial exhibitions, talks and events, an annual magazine and initiates education and participation programmes. This would just give us more experience making us more confident with our photography.

YEAR 1:

. Photography and Identity (broadly explores portraiture)

. Photography and Place (broadly explores landscape)The photograph as document (explores the photograph as a factual record)

. The photograph as Fiction (explores the idea of photography as an imaginary kind of picture)

And there are two Historical and Critical Studies modules:

. Origins and Histories of Photography

. Documents and Fictions

Students generally work in groups of ten to twelve with a tutor or tutors in each module. The group convenes weekly to review and discuss progress and share feedback. Over the module, students develop a body of work for review in a formal setting. In this final session, students learn to make a formal presentation of work to the group, help critique other students' work, and receive feedback from peers and tutors.

YEAR 2:

In Year 2, students choose the projects for practice modules from a range of possibilities informed by staff research interests. Themes vary from year to year. Past project themes have included ‘Archives’, ‘Journeys’, ‘Traces’, ‘Unlikely Spaces’ etc. In the second year, students are also encouraged to experiment with other media such as moving image and sound, and they organise an exhibition within and outside of the university. At the end of the year, an independent project that prepares you for the self-directed rigours of the third year is undertaken, in realistic, professional working conditions. Again, lectures and seminars take place one day a week introducing key concepts and debates in contemporary practice.

Assessment Year 1 and 2

Each practice module is assessed though a combination of a portfolio of work and a Development File. This continues in the early stages of the third year with the Minor Project.

Students are given detailed written feedback at the end of each module and a short feedback tutorial. Through this process, students deepen an understanding of the criteria of assessment and develop skills in critically evaluating their own work and that of others. For historical and critical studies, essays are written for assessment  and feedback tutorials are held to explain the assessment result for all essays.

YEAR 3:

In the third year, students consolidate their own personal work through:

. Minor Project

.Major Project

. Professional Practice moduleDissertation.

Work from the Minor and Major projects are included in a degree show exhibition. For each of these modules, a tutor is allocated who supervises the development of the work. Tutorials are also offered with other members of staff. A student doing their major project would expect to have six or seven tutorial slots during a semester, either ‘one to one’, or with a tutorial group with whom they can share ideas about their work. An award-winning team of technical demonstrators support students’ work through technical demonstrations, ‘clinics’ and, where appropriate, one-to-one support. Professional Practice sessions are held regularly throughout the final semester, including talks by gallery curators, picture editors, and, advice on starting up as a professional to help prepare for life after graduation.

BTEC

DDM.

International Baccalaureate

34 points.

Access to HE Diploma

pass with 60 credits overall. Art and design diploma preferred. At least 45 credits at level 3, with 24 credits at merit or above.

GCSE (minimum grade C)

a good profile.

For non-native speakers of English
IELTS 6.0 overall, with 6.0 in writing and a minimum of 5.5 in the other elements.

If your predicted grades fall below these requirements but you can demonstrate a high-quality portfolio, you are still encouraged to apply. We will consider you on an individual basis.

PORTFOLIO

Once we have received your application we ask to see a digital portfolio of your photographic work on a Tumblr website. This should show the current stage of development of your creative photographic work, your influences and artistic and photographic interests. We are primarily interested in seeing coherent project work that explores your ideas. Therefore, portfolio images are expected to demonstrate appropriate consideration and organisation. We are not interested at this stage in work that only demonstrates technique – we can teach that upon successful entry to the course. A critical essay on the work of a photographer or a photographic genre should be submitted with the portfolio.