Develop a unique and innovative body of creative work and place yourself at the heart of future imaging trends. You’ll learn from practising professionals and have the chance to join MAYN, our in-house photography agency.

Working at an industry level, you’ll research, experiment and innovate to build a unique creative portfolio in a collaborative environment. Underpinning your practice will be a grounding in the history, theory, professional contexts and working practices of photography.

 You will:

• Learn actively through workshop-based teaching, with sessions in our open-plan Learning Hub, around the campus and beyond. 
• Access state-of-the-art facilities, including studios and dark rooms, with a range of digital and analogue cameras. 
• Exhibit your work and enter competitions with support from our staff. 
• Have the chance to undertake at least two weeks of work experience in your second year, with options for local, national and international placements. 
• Benefit from a range of opportunities for professional development, including publishing magazines, curating events and organising exhibitions.

What you'll learn

This photography degree course will help you develop the skills for a broad range of careers in the creative industries. Modules encompass the specialisms of fine art, commercial, editorial, fashion, social documentary, architecture, and performance photography, through to associated career areas such as curating, publishing, and education.

As active practitioners with a wealth of industry experience, our teaching team is able to connect with and attract a vibrant network of professionals, who visit to deliver lectures and workshops, contribute to symposiums and offer placements or professional experience to our students. This rich connection with industry supports and nurtures a diversity of practice in the student body.

Throughout your studies, you’ll benefit from a purpose-built, professional-standard photographic resource that enables engagement with the latest high-end digital technology alongside traditional analogue photography. A highly skilled team of technical instructors and technicians will build your confidence in technical areas, photo studios, darkrooms and digital print services.

The skills you’ll gain on this course fall into two categories: subject-specific skills that are directly related to the varied disciplines of photographic practice, and universal transferable skills that apply to a wide variety of contexts, such as research, contextual understanding, collaboration and communication.

How you'll learn

You’ll tackle project work and undertake trips to local and national galleries, studios and companies. Regular learning will come from technical inductions, tutorials, seminars, lectures, workshops and group activities. Practice-based workshops provide the means of developing practical skills, and allow opportunities to learn and develop conceptual frameworks and practical skills.  Your learning will also be enriched through our Virtual Learning Environment, which supports a student-centred learning approach, and facilitates collaboration.

You’ll also have the opportunity to take on national and international placements, exhibit your work, gain paid work with our in-house photo agency, have portfolio reviews from visiting professionals, and go on optional study trips to global centres for photography such as New York, and London or visit international photography festivals in Paris, Amsterdam, Brighton or Krakow.