Course summary
What's your angle? Photography is an exciting, historically important and culturally significant medium. Our FdA Photography is designed to appeal to anyone with an enthusiasm for photography and the desire to pursue photographic practice, either as a career or simply as a form of self-expression. In the first year of study, you will practise core photography skills, studio skills and darkroom skills, giving you an experience of both a digital workflow and traditional analogue/darkroom techniques. In the second year of study, you will apply these techniques to various genres of photography, providing you with an opportunity to work on client-based projects, pursue a self-initiated documentary project, and assemble a substantial self-directed photographic project. In the second year, you will also look at design and marketing for photographers, considering how best to market your photographic work and skills to potential clients and/or exhibitors. The course balances study of commercial photography with an exploration of the broader importance of photography in documenting the world around us – and its significance as a form of personal expression – in non-commercial genres such as documentary, fine art or street photography. Whilst the commercial element within photographic practice is undeniably important, the medium’s potential to document and explore society, and to allow individuals to express themselves creatively, is equally important. The degree will provide you with experience of working in commercial genres such as advertising and industrial photography, whilst also giving you the opportunity to explore the worlds of fine art, street and documentary photography. In addition, you will have the opportunity of studying the history of photography, and examining the work of important and contemporary photographers. The degree is welcoming to people from all backgrounds, both traditional students and those returning to education as mature students. Entrants onto our degree level photography provision have in the past come from many different backgrounds: you may simply be an enthusiastic amateur, or you may already work as a photographer. However, regardless of your background, whether you are intending on pursuing a career within commercial photography, establishing your own business or seeking work as a freelancer, our course aims to build on your enthusiasm for the subject, giving you confidence in your abilities whilst providing you with the knowledge and skills necessary to practice or study photography at a higher level. During your time on the course, you will be given the opportunity of working with both analogue (film-based) and digital formats, and you will be able to practise using our equipment – including our studio and darkroom facilities. During your second year, you will be asked to design, plan and produce your own extended independent project, which you will self-publish, giving you something which can be used to help market yourself as a photographer upon completing the degree. This course is primarily designed for face-to-face learning, with attendance during lessons for the specified hours within the validation document. However, there may be periods of study where the government advises TEC Partnership that it is not safe to open campuses, or there is limited access due to social distancing measures. If the campus is closed, TEC Partnership will deliver your sessions online and offer you the necessary support and resources remotely. If there is limited access due to social distancing measures a blended model will be adopted, with some lessons taking place in small groups and others using online sessions and support.
Modules
Modules at Level 4 are intended to introduce you to core skills and key concepts whilst allowing you freedom to find you own approach within whatever types of photography interest you. At Level 4, you will study the following modules: (i) Photography Skills, in which you will be introduced to the equipment and given opportunity to practise using it; (ii) Studio Skills, giving you the opportunity to work in a studio environment; (iii) Darkroom Skills, enabling you to learn how to develop and print your work in a darkroom setting; (iv) Understanding Photographs and Study Skills, which will provide you with a comprehension of how photographs ‘work’ in communicating meaning to their audiences; (v) Digital Workflow Systems and Employability, in which you will learn how to use modern professional software to manage, manipulate and archive photographs; (vi) The History of Photography, in which we will examine the history and evolution of the medium Modules at Level 5 are designed to provide you with a balance of practising photography within commercial genres against exploring the potential for non-commercial genres to extend the boundaries of photography. These modules are: (i) The Camera as Storyteller: Documentary and Street Photography, a module focusing on documentary forms of photography and which considers the importance of storytelling to documentary / street photography, both in the form of single images and as photo essays (ii) Authorship in Photography, in which you will look at the work of key photographers; (iii) Design and Marketing for Photographers, which focuses on how to market your skills as a photographer and promote your work to clients and / or exhibitors; (iv) Client-Based Projects: Working to a Live Brief, which will ask you to interpret a brief provided by a simulated client; (v) Critical and Conceptual Practice: Self-Directed Project, in which you will be asked to produce an independent project in a form / on a topic of your choice and self-publish it. Modules focused on photographic practice are intended to provide you with an appropriate skillset and a working methodology which, combined with a flexibility of approach, should be sufficient to enable you to enter into a career in photography, whether in the employ of others or via self-employment / entrepreneurship. These modules are focused on a number of genres, both commercial and artistic – including photojournalism and press photography, portraiture, advertising photography, industrial photography, fine art photography and documentary / street photography. These modules will be delivered alongside an ethos grounded in the principles of work-related learning; foregrounded at Level 5, the ethos of work-related learning will be presented to students via the setting of ‘live’, client-led briefs in appropriate modules and a simulation of work-based contexts.
Assessment method
Assessment on the programme will be via the production of both individual photographs and sequences of images, including photo essays. Some modules will expect you to work towards a simulated ‘live brief’. Other modules will give you the freedom to select your own topic or issue and produce work which you will then be required to self-publish and submit in the form of a book. Alongside these methods of assessment, you will be asked to complete traditional academic assessments in the form of essays, both short- and long-form.
How to apply
This course is not accepting applications at this time. Please contact the provider to find out more.
This is the deadline for applications to be completed and sent for this course. If the university or college still has places available you can apply after this date, but your application is not guaranteed to be considered.
Application codes
- Course code:
- W640
- Institution code:
- G80
- Campus name:
- University Centre Grimsby
- Campus code:
- -
Points of entry
The following entry points are available for this course:
- Year 1
Entry requirements
Qualification requirements
UCAS Tariff - 80 points
Standard Entry The standard entry requirement for the degree will be 80 UCAS points. Non-Standard Entry Non-standard entry is intended to support students who may not meet the standard academic entry requirements of a HE programme, normally level 3 qualifications which attract UCAS points (for instance A-levels or BTEC level 3 courses). An applicant must be able to demonstrate recent work/experience in the relevant sector which would give them skills and knowledge comparable to applicants with Level 3 qualifications. All such non-standard applicants will be interviewed, given a short-term photography-related exercise to complete and asked to submit a short essay; these tasks are intended to assess the applicant’s abilities both technically and academically. The submitted work will be judged, taking into account the applicant’s academic potential and relevant work/experience.
Student Outcomes
There is no data available for this course. For further information visit the Discover Uni website.
Fees and funding
Tuition fees
Republic of Ireland | £8500 | Year 1 |
Channel Islands | £8500 | Year 1 |
England | £8500 | Year 1 |
Northern Ireland | £8500 | Year 1 |
Scotland | £8500 | Year 1 |
Wales | £8500 | Year 1 |
Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .
Additional fee information
Provider information
University Centre Grimsby
Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education
Nuns Corner Campus
Grimsby
DN34 5BQ