Photography MA

Course in brief

Photography at Brighton is taught within the context of the fine arts and oriented around the development of individual projects.

The aim is for you to develop a strong and sustainable artistic practice and body of work that you can confidently exhibit and publish. This will give you a strong foundation for developing a career as an independent photographer/artist, or alternatively for more commercial or community-based activities.

The course has a strong theoretical component, as we believe all students should understand how to conceptualise and contextualise their practice and communicate it clearly to a variety of audiences.

We encourage students to engage with the latest developments in photography, fine art and wider media culture, and to constantly challenge the limits of the medium. Work that crosses technological boundaries and engages with film, video, sound and installation is encouraged – but so is photography's engagement with performance, painting and sculpture.

More than anything, we are committed to an exploratory and thoughtful form of picture-making that is adequate to representing our experiences of the modern world.

Key facts

Location Brighton: Grand Parade

Full-time 1 year
Part-time 2 years

Apply online

You can apply for 2016 and 2017: please check that you meet the entry requirements before you make your application.

Apply now for your place

Entry requirements

The entry requirements listed here are our typical offer for this course if you wish to begin studying with us in 2017. They should be used as a general guide.

We operate a flexible admissions policy – this means that you could receive a lower conditional offer than the typical offer, informed by our assessment of your complementary non-academic achievements and experiences. For courses that require interview or portfolio review, this may also be considered in the level of any conditional offer that follows if your application is successful.

Degree and/or experience
Normally an undergraduate degree in a visual arts discipline, for example photography or fine art. Applicants who do not match this criteria but who show great potential for development in their work may also be considered.

For non-native speakers of English
IELTS 6.5 overall and 6.0 in writing.

International equivalencies

International equivalencies by country

Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bermuda
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burma (Myanmar)
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guyana
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kosovo
Kuwait
Latvia
Lebanon
Liechtenstein
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malaysia
Malawi
Malta
Mexico
Moldova
Montenegro
Morocco
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palestinian National Authority
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Syria
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

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

Visit our language institute

For English language preparation courses.

Visit our International College

For academic preparation courses.

Portfolio requirements

Digital portfolio

When you apply please upload a digital portfolio. You may have a website you want to link to, or you may want to prepare your portfolio as a PowerPoint file or on Tumblr. Make sure there is some brief text explaining and contextualising the work so we can understand the thinking behind it. We are not interested in lots of striking single ‘images’ but want to see evidence that you can sustain an idea through the development of a body of photographic work, so we would expect the portfolio to be organised thematically. We would also normally expect to see 15-25 images.

Interview portfolio

If you come for an interview you should bring a hard-copy portfolio of prints (if this is your medium). Once again we would expect to see evidence of whole projects, and for the prints to be considered – we are interested in your attention to the medium itself, not just the virtual image. You do not need to ‘mount’ the work – bringing it along in vinyl sleeves or a portfolio box will be adequate. Think hard about the sequencing and how you are going to present the relationships between different projects as a narrative. If you have moving image work you may bring it on a memory stick or disk, but it may be best to bring your own laptop. If you work in installation, bring appropriate samples and installation shots.

Course in detail

Why study with us?

Creative and critical environment in which to practise and think about photography

Opportunity to build a professional profile as an independent practitioner

Fine art approach to photographic practice

Course tutors who are experienced professional photographers and photographic researchers

Advice on professional development

Chance to develop a sustainable individual practice, graduating with a body of work ready for exhibition, a publication and a piece of critical writing that will help to position your work

Areas of study

Practice-based projects are supported by briefings, tutorials, lectures, seminars and technical workshops. Workshops include demonstrations in the latest digital and traditional analogue processes, involving camera use, lighting, and black-and-white and colour printing. Key professional practice sessions include talks and seminars by photographers, artists, writers and other professionals concerned with commissioning, publishing and exhibiting photography.

Semester 1

Experimental Practice(20 credits): a themed practice module designed to help you explore your own approach to practice in more depth

Research Methods in Theory and Practice (20 credits): developing skills in research, experimentation and critical reflection

Contemporary Debates (20 credits): a theoretical seminar considering how photography has developed as a reflexive medium straddling fine art practice and more documentary contexts

Semester 2

Photography Research Project, Part 1 (20 credits): laying the foundations and making initial work in your specialist area of practice

Professional Practice (20 credits): built around lectures from visiting artists, curators and editors and a series of workshops teaching skills in public speaking, fundraising, research and web design

Dissertation (20 credits): between 6,000 and 8,000 words exploring a theoretical or historical topic related to your specialist area of practice

Summer Semester

Photography Research Project, Part 2 (40 credits): developing and resolving a body of work for exhibition

Photobooks and Publications (20 credits): realising your project as a publication

Photography in Brighton

Brighton has an established photographic culture. Photography has featured as a significant part of the Brighton Festival and has had a strong presence within the many visual arts spaces of the city. This continues to grow, particularly through the presence of the Brighton Photo Biennial and Photoworks, a commissioning and publishing organisation. Furthermore, the Brighton Photo Fringe, MiniClick and ArtsForum all organise regular events, exhibitions and talks, contributing to a lively photography scene across the city.

Staff profile

Joanna Lowry

Joanna Lowry’s research interests revolve around the impact of photographic technologies on late twentieth century and contemporary art practices, but also on the way in which those practices have contributed to changing ideas about the nature of the photographic image.

This has involved exploring the fundamental philosophical and cultural implications of lens-based technologies for the way in which we understand the self, subjectivity and space, ideas about presence and performativity, the aesthetics of the everyday, and our relationship to pictorial space and the tableau.

Underpinning all these different interests is a fundamental suspicion that, to understand contemporary photographic picture making, we need to move beyond the semiotic analysis of the image and consider instead how different lens-based technologies might produce alternative forms of meaningful encounter with the object.

Other teaching staff include Mark Power, Aaron Schuman and Fergus Heron

Student work

Many of our students have enjoyed critical success for their photography. In recent years photography students have been awarded first place and runners-up in many of the most prestigious photography awards including the Jerwood Photography Prize, the Association of Photographers Photography Student of the Year Award, and the Guardian Newspaper Photography Student of the Year Award.

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Facilities

The following resources are exclusively for MA and BA(Hons) photography 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
A selection of 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.

Careers and employability

Our Photography MA has led to students developing strong portfolio careers in the field of the arts and gaining considerable recognition for their work through prizes and exhibitions. Many of our students have gone on to do doctoral study or take up lecturing posts in higher education; others have developed roles working in galleries, publishing, picture editing and community projects.

Alumni include Lisa Barnard, Corinne Silva, Virgilio Ferreira, Matt Henry, Stephen Vaughan – successful artists in the world of contemporary photography who exhibit internationally and produce challenging new work.

Selected awards:

Nicky Walsh: Jerwood Photography Prize, 2007
Joan Alexander: Danny Wilson Memorial Prize, Brighton PhotoFringe 2012; Magenta Flash Forward Prize, 2012
Virgilio Ferreira: 1000 Words International Photography Prize, 2012
Michael Vogt: Prudential Award for the Finest Photograph, National Open Art Competition 2013
Lisa Barnard: Renger Patsch Photobook Award, 2013; Arles New Directions Award, 2015
Alexandra Lethbridge: shortlisted for Aperture First Photobook Award, 2014
Matt Henry: Derby Format International Exposure Award, 2015

Our graduates have regularly featured in the Curator’s Choice, Source Magazine Postgraduate Portfolios, and Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed at the Photographers Gallery. Their work has been shown in journals such as BJP, Aesthetica Magazine, Photographies and Photoworks. They have exhibited widely in galleries both in the UK and abroad.

Alumni profile: Lisa Barnard

www.lisabarnard.co.uk

Lisa’s work is in the field of new post-conceptual documentary practice, exploring new ways of working with photography, archive material, video and performance to interrogate the politics of technology and remote warfare. Her photographic project on the Thatcher legacy, Chateau Despair (GOST books), produced one of the most iconic images of the failure of Thatcherite politics. Her work on drone warfare and the Iraq war provided the basis for her book, Hyenas of the Battlefield: Machines in the Garden, which won the RengerPatsch PhotoBook Award. She has won many other awards and exhibited work in London, Europe and New York. She currently works as a senior lecturer at the University of Wales, Newport.

Alumni profile: Virgilio Ferreira

www.virgilioferreira.com

Virgilio’s work is situated in the phenomenology of experience, evoking the fragile tenuousness of identity in modern society. Subtle and beautifully crafted, his work is both lyrical and enigmatic. Following his graduation he was recipient of the 1000 Words International Photography Prize and has since published a book of his new work. His photography has been widely exhibited in Europe, the Middle East, the United States, and South-East Asia. Some of the most significant exhibitions have taken place at the Royal Academy of Art and Flowers Gallery, London; the Portuguese Centre of Photography; High House Gallery, Oxfordshire; Empty Quarter Gallery, Dubai; and Ofoto Gallery, Shanghai.

Fees and funding

Your fees

UK/EU (full-time) 6,030 GBP

International (full-time) 14,400 GBP

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2016–17. 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. Further details regarding tuition fees are available from 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- 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.

What's included in the fee?

When costs such as health or DBS checks, field trips or use of specialist materials are incurred as a mandatory requirement of the course they are included in your tuition fee.

You may incur additional costs depending on the optional modules or activities you choose. 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. Before you apply check with the school that provides your course using the contact details in the Find out more tab (at the end of this page) for advice about what is included and what optional costs you could face so you can budget accordingly.

See our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as further information about fees and advice on international and island fee paying status.

Location and living here

Location

About Brighton

Brighton has been called the happiest place in the UK, and it’s easy to see why. With five miles of pebble beach, more than 300 pubs and a packed festival calendar, Brighton is the ideal place to spend your student years.

Arts and culture: The Royal Pavilion is the most famous landmark in Brighton, opening its doors to around 400,000 tourists every year. Right next door is the Brighton Dome, the south coast’s premier multi-arts venue, and the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, which holds a diverse collection of decorative arts, textiles and archaeological artefacts.

Festivals: The Brighton Festival is now the largest arts festival in England and a major milestone in the international cultural calendar. Meanwhile, The Great Escape has been established as the UK’s leading event for new music, with over 300 bands playing 30 venues across the city over three days.

Nightlife: Aside from the many nightclubs that line the city’s seafront, student favourites include The Haunt, Concorde 2 and Patterns, which attract leading bands and DJs from around the world. If you don’t feel like dancing, you can take your pick from the many hundreds of pubs and bars that dot the city centre.

Shopping: The quirky North Laine district houses Brighton’s finest collection of boutique shops and independent cafes, while the narrow, winding streets of the South Lanes house collections of jewellery and antiques. Churchill Square is the city’s main shopping centre and serves all of your high street needs.

Sports: Brighton’s seaside location offers the perfect opportunity to try paddle boarding, kayaking and windsurfing. Further into the city, The Level has a skate park for skateboarders and BMX riders to practise their skills.

Campus where this course is taught

Grand Parade campus

Our Grand Parade campus is in the heart of Brighton, across the road from the Royal Pavilion and a five-minute walk from the beach. After your lectures you’ll be right in the city centre, close to all the best pubs, clubs, restaurants and cafes that Brighton has to offer.

The campus is home to a creative community of arts and humanities students, specialising in everything from fashion and textiles to politics and philosophy. It is also the location of the University of Brighton Gallery and Sallis Benney Theatre, which host events throughout the festival season and beyond.

The world-renowned University of Brighton Design Archives are in the basement of Grand Parade and offer extensive resources for the study of British design in the twentieth century. St Peters House, the campus library, is also nearby and houses a specialist collection of arts books and journals.

Accommodation

Brighton

Our Brighton halls of residence are located across the city in Grand Parade, Moulsecoomb, Varley Park and Falmer.

Our Grand Parade campus is in central Brighton and has one hall of residence, Phoenix Brewery, within walking distance. We have around 300 rooms available in Phoenix Brewery, which are all ensuite and self-catered.

Moulsecoomb is two miles from the city centre and also has one hall of residence, Moulsecoomb Place, on campus. All accommodation in Moulsecoomb Place is catered, offering breakfast and an evening meal during term time. There are more than 150 rooms available here, with six to eight rooms per flat.

Varley Park offers the biggest choice of student accommodation with ten halls of residence. The site is four miles from Brighton centre but within walking distance of Falmer train station. You can also catch a free bus service to Grand Parade, Moulsecoomb and Falmer campuses, which is operated by local bus service The Big Lemon.

Falmer campus has two halls of residence: Great Wilkins and Paddock Field. Great Wilkins offers 150+ self-catered single rooms and one-bed couples flats, while Paddock Field offers 450+ catered and self-catered single rooms only. All rooms in Falmer are en-suite.

Aside from halls, you have the option of Unihomes, which we let out to our students on behalf of private landlords. The rent covers all utilities and includes £5,000 of contents insurance for your personal belongings.

You can also choose to join the many students who live away from campus in private rented accommodation. We have a list of high-quality, university-endorsed private sector accommodation and can help you find housemates to move in with.

If you have any questions about accommodation in Brighton, our accommodation team will be happy to help. You can contact them by email at accommodation@brighton.ac.uk or by telephone on 01273 644100.

Paddock Field