Level: Undergraduate
Study Mode: Full time / Part time
Duration: 1 year (full time)2 years (part time)
Application: to UCAS (full-time)Direct to the College (part-time)
Application Deadline: 15 Jan 2012
UCAS Course Code: W641
Institution Code: H18
Validated By: University of Wales

Introduction

The photographic/media/ communications industry is ever changing, meeting and adopting through necessity, new methods, technologies, applications, philosophies and social trends.

‘Photography has become the heterotypic post modern medium through its ability to brush aside and blur the boundaries between art and commerce. It is encountered in every arena of many societies and is fundamental to the flow and passage of knowledge within their systems of communication’

Michael Mack, 1996, Surface: Contemporary Photographic Practice

The course programme whilst demanding technical excellence and control will primarily be concerned with the ‘Image’, its inherent communicative, persuasive and manipulative qualities, the context in which it is used and the social, historical and contemporary issues that emerge as a consequence. It will foreground the understanding and use of the ‘Image’ as a means of, and a tool for, communication and personal comment.

The emphasis and delivery of the course programme will seek to examine and promote the notion of the ‘image maker’ rather than the ‘image taker’.

The course programme provides the context for a more sustained and personal approach to theoretical photographic practice and practical development, enabling the development of an advanced understanding of the medium and an ability to undertake critical and informed analysis, and subsequent application.

It is anticipated at this level students will be self motivated and, to an increasing extent, working independently. However, the course prides itself on the availability of a range of tutors to guide students via tutorials, formative critiques and practical inductions. HCA offers excellent facilities and access to equipment.

The course programme is divided into four modules each contributing to the other in terms of defining personal practice and professional awareness. They are:

Dissertation
The Public Domain
Negotiated Contemporary Practice
Defined Personal Practice

These modules will offer the creative space where students, having reached a level of sustained independent self development, can make a definitive personal statement about their specialist practice. The body of work produced marks a point of arrival in the ongoing process of achieving a recognisable and personal photographic identity and a point of departure for the development and production of a resolved and mature body of work that will demonstrate and measure a critical understanding of the students’ place within contemporary practice.

A final degree show allows the individual to showcase their work and the course will encourage and help in promoting all individuals at local and national level.

On graduation you can expect to be in a position where you are able to establish your own practice across a range of photographic activities such as photojournalism, travel, corporate identity, industrial, architectural, medical, advertising and fashion, exhibition and book publication. A range of non practical options exist such as studio management, gallery management and journalism.

Successful completion of a Foundation Degree (FdA) or HND in a related subject
Portfolio
English as a second language: IELTS 6.0 at enrolment

All applications to our Full Time Higher Education courses should be made via UCAS – for more details on how to apply, click here