BA (Hons) Photography
University of Hertfordshire
Key Information
Campus location
Hatfield, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
3 - 6 years
Pace
Full time, Part time
Tuition fees
GBP 13,450 *
Application deadline
Request info
Earliest start date
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* international students full time, part time £1680 per 15 credits / UK students full time £9250, part time £1155 per 15 credits / EU students full time £13450, part time £1680 per 15 credits
Scholarships
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Introduction
‘’Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, examinations may be replaced by an alternative form of assessment during the academic year 2021/2022. Please refer to the Programme Specification on these pages for further details.’’
Why choose this course?
The friendly and supportive course encourages you to explore and evolve your photographic vision and practice through a programme of workshops, seminars, lectures, and work experience opportunities. Through a sequence of practical projects, you gain a range of technical skills and professional knowledge. Experimentation and risk-taking are encouraged together with the critical study of photographic histories, theories, and contemporary practices.
The photography programme emphasises professionalism and industry relevance. The tutors and visiting lecturers are practising photographers or potential employers from the media industries such as working photographers, agents, artists, art directors, marketing professionals, and curators.
- This Photography degree is designed for those that want to work towards a career as a professional photographer or in related media professions.
- The degree prepares you for employment in a range of photography-related professions.
- You'll explore and evolve your individual photographic vision and practice, specialising in your chosen genre.
- Our tutors and visiting lecturers are practising photographers or potential employers.
- Our student work is increasingly getting recognised within the photographic world. Our industry partners are high profile and recent student work placements include the prestigious photography agency Magnum. In addition, we have a number of interns working for the BBC.
- Our lively talks programme also allows students to show and discuss current work-in-progress and receive direct feedback from key figures. Our recent visitors include Tereza Cervenova, Matthew Finn, Alexandra Lethbridge, Carl Bigmore, Sebastian Edge from The North London Darkroom, and contemporary photographic agency Together Associates.
What's the course about?
If you want a career in photography, this is the course for you. Through a range of projects, you’ll explore and evolve your vision and practice in photography. Through practical workshops, you will learn technical expertise and through feedback and group sessions you will critique and expand your visual language. You’ll also study the theoretical side of photography, including its fascinating history and contemporary practices. Experimentation, creativity, and collaboration are encouraged and facilitated throughout the course. The course has a clear industry focus that aims to develop your professional awareness. A key part of your Final Year is learning how to operate as a freelancer, interact with clients and approach potential employers. This culminates in the presentation of your final portfolio to employers and public-facing graduate shows.
Your main campus is College Lane
This is where the creative arts, science, and health-related subjects are based. This means you’ll share the campus with future nurses, scientists, artists, and more. You can use the common rooms to relax with friends, work out in the 24-hour gym or have a drink in our on-campus pub or cafes. We also have restaurants for you to eat in or grab something on the go. Our Learning Resources Centres are open 24/7, which means you can study whenever suits you best. Want to pop over to the other campus? You can take the free shuttle bus or walk there in just 15 minutes.
This course includes the options of:
- Work placement
- Study abroad
Gallery
Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
Curriculum
What will I study?
First Year
Delivered through hands-on workshops, you will be introduced to a wide range of professional techniques and approaches to photographic image-making. Guided by my lecturers, you will look at the studio and portable lighting, shooting in the studio and on location, digital workflow and how to retouch and manipulate images, technical theory, and use of the darkroom in color and black and white. Developing films and enlarging photographic images through traditional and alternative methods.
In group sessions, you will use informal discussion to support your photographic work, gaining feedback, critical awareness, and confidence. Studying the histories and theories of photography gives you a foundation for your practice both in-class sessions and through written work.
You will complete the first year with a public-facing exhibition and a solid grounding in photography fundamentals through final photographic work, practice, research, writing, and theory. You will have gained confidence in academic research and writing and be ready to jump up to the second year.
Second Year
During year two, you begin to define who you are as a photographic practitioner and identify your professional goals. You respond to assignments and negotiated projects by considering professional concerns such as markets, audiences, clients, and users of the photography industry.
Advanced photography and digital imaging skills are taught through lecture/demonstrations, workshop sessions, and studio practice. This stage also introduces and develops your professional awareness and provides an opportunity to experience a 'live' working environment through industry-style briefs set by professional photographers and designers. There is scope for work experience and study abroad in Europe or further afield. There is a second-year final exhibition where, in groups, you will begin to put into practice skills around presenting and curating photography in a group show.
Final Year
In the final year, you will embark on a self-defined, extended project that allows them time to evolve to a more sophisticated outcome. You will choose a specialism area to work in, for example, documentary, fashion, still-life, and you will spend the year making the kind of work you want to represent you as an emerging photographer.
You will develop a professional portfolio of photography with which to launch your career. The portfolio will demonstrate your professional versatility by including client-led work alongside a self-directed project full of personal vision, media expertise, and professional standards. You will also write a dissertation or a report which identifies an area of contemporary professional practice relevant to your work and feeds into and supports the practical making.
A key part of your final year study is learning how to operate as a freelancer, interact with clients and approach potential employers. This culminates in presenting your exhibition work and portfolio in two separate degree exhibitions, which are open to invited media industry employers and the public.
Level 4
- Photography: Histories and Cultures II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Experimental Projects II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Digital Environment II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Photography Practices II 30 Credits II Compulsory
Level 5
- Year Abroad II 0 Credits II Compulsory
- Photography: Applications and Cultures II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Negotiated Photography Projects II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Professional Development II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Photography Assignments II 30 Credits II Compulsory
Level 6
- Year Abroad II 0 Credits II Compulsory
- Enterprise and Employability in the Photographic Industries II 15 Credits II Compulsory
- Photography L6 Degree Essay / Report II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Professional Portfolio II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Concepts and Planning II 15 Credits II Compulsory
- Degree Major Project II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Sandwich Year (Creative Arts) II 0 Credits II Optional
Study abroad
An opportunity for an amazing experience, which will help make you stand out from the crowd. With more and more companies working internationally, the experience of living in another country can make a great impression on future employers.
This course offers you the opportunity to enhance your study and CV with a sandwich year abroad. The University has partnerships with over 150 universities worldwide, including the USA, Canada, Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, and closer to home in Europe.
If you study abroad between your second and third year of study, you’ll pay no tuition fee to the partner university and no tuition fee to us either. We’ll ask you to make your decision in your second year, so there is plenty of time to think about it.
Work placement
Graduate with invaluable work experience alongside your degree and stand out from the crowd.
This course offers you the opportunity to enhance your study and CV with a work placement sandwich year. It’s a chance to explore career possibilities, make valuable contacts and gain sought-after professional skills.
Our dedicated Careers and Employment team are here to help guide you through the process. Previous work placements include Jamie Oliver Better Food Foundation, Nickelodeon, BBC, Magnum, Bauer, IPC, Gallery Stock, and St James' Palace.
If you take up a work placement between your second and third year of study at the University of Hertfordshire, you’ll pay no tuition fee for this year. We’ll ask you to make your decision in your second year, so there is plenty of time to think about it.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
What's next for my career?
Graduates are equipped to pursue a wide variety of careers including self-employment as photographers in editorial, advertising, fashion, journalism, publishing; also in allied professions in multimedia, curatorial work, picture research, and arts administration. Students might also go on to specialist postgraduate study.
On the Photography degree, you are prepared for employment in a range of photographic professions which include commercial, client-led practices such as advertising and editorial photography through to documentary photography and personally defined fine art photography, as well as related fields of employment such as production, picture editing, curating and gallery management
Many of our graduates work in freelance positions after their degrees. Others go into areas of employment such as photo editing and retouching or become CGI artists, photo librarians/archivists, producers, agents, art buyers, art directors, photographers’ assistants, lighting technicians, digital operators, studio managers, photography curators/writers/historians and more.
English Language Requirements
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