Photography BA(Hons)

Year 1

In the first year, there are four themed practice modules, each lasting six or seven weeks, and two historical and critical studies modules.

Modules

• Practice 1: Photography and Identity

  In this module you will be encouraged to consider the photographic portrait in the widest possible sense through making a body of work. The subject matter and approach can consider social, personal, gender, ethnicity, generational or family relations. Work may highlight importance of location - workplace or neighbourhood - on identity. Your final work should demonstrate aesthetic consideration, conceptual coherence, research through work in progress, technical realisation in DSLR camera, studio and location lighting; Lightroom, Photoshop, digital printing and portfolio presentation.

• Practice 2: Photography and Place

  In this module you will be encouraged to consider the photograph as landscape in the widest possible sense through making a body of work. Subject matter and approach may consider relationships between nature and culture, habitation and environment, to creatively explore and imaginatively visualise contemporary landscape or a more broadly defined sense of place. Your final work should demonstrate aesthetic consideration, conceptual coherence, research through work in progress, technical realisation in camera, and darkroom processes, printing and display presentation.

• Practice 3: The Photograph as Document

  In this module you will consider the photograph as document through making a body of work. Potential approaches can involve a drawing from social documentary, photojournalism or reportage, to conceptually based art practices that address cultural, historical, political and social issues through a critical approach to the photographic document or archive. Your final work should demonstrate aesthetic consideration, conceptual coherence, research through work in progress, technical realisation in digital production of image/text, colour darkroom, scanning, printing and presentation as installation.

• Practice 4: The Photograph as Fiction

  In this module you will be encouraged to consider the photograph as fiction through making a body of work. Potential approaches can involve a range of possibilities, from collage or montage, to theatrical scenarios that form imaginary narratives, or address cultural, historical, political and social issues. Your final work should demonstrate aesthetic consideration, conceptual coherence, research through work in progress, technical realisation in studio flash (staged), digital printing, projections, light boxes and other forms of photographic image presentation.

• Historical and Critical Studies 1: Origins and Histories

  This module will provide you with an historical overview and analysis of the origins of photography. You will explore how and why history enables meaningful engagement in contemporary debates about photographic practices. You will develop your ability to conduct research - to acquire knowledge through the university’s learning resources, including libraries, studentcentral, the internet, public collections, museums and galleries. Your ability to interpret research, towards seminar discussion and presentation, correctly referencing authors and texts, is developed through this module.

• Historical and Critical Studies 2: Documents and Fictions

  This module will provide an analysis of the major cultural and critical developments related to photographs regarded as documents and as fictions from early modernism to the contemporary period. You will develop your ability to conduct research, to acquire knowledge through the university’s learning resources, including libraries, studentcentral, the internet, public collections, museums and galleries. Your ability to interpret research, towards seminar discussion and presentation, correctly referencing authors and texts, is developed through this module.

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.

Practice modules are underpinned by a series of introductory technical demonstrations and workshops, by study support sessions, and by occasional lectures by staff and visiting lecturers. One day of the week is dedicated to Historical and Critical studies that take the form of a lecture as part of a series, followed by a group seminar and library study time. During the week students are expected to work independently on preparation for seminars and on the practice projects for the modules, making full use of the resources that include processing areas, dark rooms, computer suites and photography studios. 

Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through our applicant portal.

Hear from 2017 graduate Joe Pettet-Smith discuss his experience of studying Photography at Brighton

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. 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.

Modules

• Practices 5 and 6: Photographic Strategies
• Historical and Critical Studies 3: Concepts and Theories in Contemporary Photography
• Practice 7: Photographic Investigations
• Practice 8: Independent Project
• Historical and Critical Studies 4: Research Themes, Methodologies and Dissertation Proposal
• Option module

Assessment years 1 and 2

Each practice module is assessed through 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.

From the series 'Homeland' by graduate Georgs Avetisjans, one of ten winners of Magnum's Graduate Photographers Award 2017

Final year

In the third year, students consolidate their own personal work.

Modules

• Practice 9: Minor project

Options*

• Historical and Critical Studies 5: Extended Essay
• Historical and Critical Studies 5: Dissertation 
• Practice 10: Major project
• Practice 10: Major project, extended option
• Professional Practice

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

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.

Assessment

A dissertation is written of 5,000–7,000 words, or an extended option of 8,000–10,000 words. This is the culmination of historical and critical studies throughout the course. It involves detailed supervision and submission of a draft paper that is given tutorial feedback prior to the final submission.

The minor and major projects are submitted for assessment.

Meet the team

Rachel K Gillies, course leader and senior lecturer

Rachel K Gillies is an artist, educator and writer. She has previously held positions as senior lecturer and course coordinator of photography at Dunedin School of Art, New Zealand. Her practice engages with contemporary photography as it responds to digital process and visual communication.

Recent work includes the exhibition The Realm of Lost Virtualities exhibited at the Brighton Photo Fringe in 2014, and the chapter Mobile Photography in the forthcoming (2017) Companion to Photography (Stephen Bull, ed.) Wiley and Blackwell.

Find out about our other staff: Rachel Gillies, Fergus Heron, Sally Miller, Xavier Ribas, Julia Winckler, Stephen Bull, Daniel Campbell-Blight, Zoe Childerley, Åsa Johannesson and Professor Francis Hodgson.

Facilities

The following resources are exclusively for our photography BA and MA students:

• fully equipped photographic studios
• dedicated photographic computing facilities
• a digital print bureau
• traditional colour darkrooms with enlargers that accept a range of negative sizes up to 10 x 8”, capable of enabling the production of exhibition-standard prints
• a traditional black-and-white processing area and darkroom
• film and digital single lens reflex cameras – and medium-format and large-format film cameras – to supplement your own equipment.

The university’s art and design library has a well-stocked photography area and provides access to a wide range of online resources.

Extra support for teaching and learning is provided through Student Services.

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Portfolio advice 

Once we have received your application we will ask you to share a digital portfolio of your photographic work with us via your website or blog. This should show:

• the current stage of development of your creative photographic work
• your influences and artistic and photographic interests
• a critical essay on the work of a photographer or a photographic genre.

Portfolio images are expected to demonstrate appropriate consideration and organisation. We want to see images in your portfolio that show consideration and organisation. We are primarily interested in  project work that explores your ideas. We are not interested in work that only demonstrates command of technique – we can teach that upon successful entry to - it’s our job to help you develop that once you are on the course.

Interview advice 

Interviews normally take place in person but temporarily from March 2020, all interviews will be replaced by an online portfolio submission.

If invited for an interview, be prepared to demonstrate:

• your knowledge of the course and its context
• an engagement with current art and photographic practices
• an ability to discuss your work and its development
• a willingness to engage with photography in a scholarly way through independent study and written work
• an enthusiasm for working in groups and independently.

The interview will involve a discussion of your work. Please be prepared to talk about your work at the interview and bring a portfolio box, book or case of printed work and a critical essay on the work of a photographer or a photographic genre to enable this discussion. We expect the print portfolio be a considered collection of photographic work of between 20 and 30 images that:

• is organised into projects
• demonstrates an exploration of ideas.

Course fees

What's included

You may have to pay additional costs during your studies, although we have tried to keep this to a minimum. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. A summary of the costs that you may be expected to pay, and what is included in your fees, while studying a course in the School of Media are listed here.

• There will be opportunities to attend field trips and off-site visits. These are optional and are not required to pass your course but you can budget approximately £30–£700 for these. The nature of the costs vary from provisions for a packed-lunch to flight and accommodation costs for international field trips. The amount spent would be based on location and number of trips taken.
• Typically, practice-based courses incur more costs than text-based subjects. These costs are normally associated with specialist equipment and materials for making work and for the public presentation of work.
• Specialist equipment is provided to cover essential learning. Students may choose to buy their own specialist equipment, these may include cameras, or computers and software. Budgets can range from £50–£2,000. Buying specialist equipment is best undertaken in consultation with our academic and technical staff. This expenditure is not essential to pass any of our courses.
• For some courses you will need to budget up to £200 for printing and publishing. Photography courses may incur higher costs (£500–£2,000) when printing and framing images of professional standard for public presentation.
• Course books are available from the university but you may wish to budget up to £200 to buy your own copies.
• For some courses you will need to budget up to £150 for stationery.
• Final-year graduation shows are opportunities to present your final, independent project work to the public. Practice-based courses will typically incur higher costs. Depending on the specific nature of your final project you will need to budget between £20–£2,500. 

You can chat with our enquiries team through the Stay in touch panel at the end of this page if you require further information. Or check our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships, as well as more information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2020–21.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK/EU students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

Local area

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Maps