Course details
Duration
Two years
Delivery
Online and part-time
Start dates
January, May and September
Next welcome week
20 January 2025
Next course start date
27 January 2025
Application deadline
10 January 2025
Total course fee
£9,900
Course overview
Equip yourself with industry-ready skills, an informed professional portfolio, and an effective online presence. Our master’s degree course harnesses the symbiotic relationship between academic inquiry, industry-grounded practice and informed research.
Through a broad, varied curriculum, you’ll explore the many ways in which you can channel your creativity. Photographic practice can be used as a way of understanding the world around you, fostering introspection and tackling contemporary issues by engaging with a wider audience. Our tutors are also active in a wide range of photography genres – ranging from fashion and documentary photography to fine art photography – so you’ll develop knowledge from across the industry.
Underpinning this entire degree course is one of the most important, versatile and transferable skills that every master’s graduate should acquire: rigorous self-reflection. You’ll be encouraged to document your progress, methodologies, creative processes and the challenges you encounter in a Reflective Journal.
By the end of your course, you’ll have a profound understanding of the contemporary photography scene, and a sharp awareness of how it is being shaped by emerging trends. You’ll be able to articulate your creative identity with confidence and draw on a vast range of knowledge for inspiration.
Join our vibrant cohort of like-minded creatives from across the globe and embark on our transformative academic journey. There’s no limit to where the connections you make with your peers and tutors will take you. They could unlock future job opportunities, creative collaborations and mentorship in the future.
Online MA Photography course overview
Watch the course overview video to gain insight into who the course is for, what you will learn on the course, as well as the advantages of studying with AUB and online.
Click here to read the video transcript.
Course units
These units have been carefully designed by our academic experts. We’ll guide you every step of the way, from mapping out your creative identity to experimenting with new mediums. With frequent feedback shared through forums, your diverse range of insights will also help one another refine your creative vision as you prepare for the next steps in your career.
This introductory unit is designed to set a baseline for you and your peers, so that you can all engage meaningfully with the rest of the modules. We’ll help you break down your current practice and think about where it fits into the contemporary photography scene. You will also develop a basic understanding of practice- and arts-based research and start documenting your academic journey in your reflective journal.
In this unit, we’ll encourage you to deconstruct your creative process. You'll enrich your creative vision by experimenting with alternative approaches, techniques, genres and ideas. We’ll also give you a foundational understanding of the discourse that will underpin the rest of your studies.
This research-focused unit will deep dive into the history of photography, and its role in contemporary culture. Looking at both historical and contemporary theory, you’ll deliver responses to specific artists, genres or themes. We’ll also start exploring the symbiotic relationship between theory and practice.
In this process-oriented unit, you’ll collaborate with your peers to organise, curate and present work to an audience. In doing so, you’ll explore and challenge traditional and experimental approaches, considering how this may influence your audience’s interpretation.
This unit is led by a seasoned commercial photographer and will present the realities of the industry. You’ll take part in a series of workshops that will involve developing a creative CV, an artist’s statement and an online presence. We’ll also support you in developing key collaborative skills and creating portfolios for open calls and competitions.
This unit focuses heavily on the art of introspection. Through the lens of everything that shapes your identity, you’ll use your lived experience as a creative springboard. You will also be introduced to a range of artists who use their identities as a starting point for creative practice.
With the rate at which technology is transforming our world, definitions of photography are constantly blurring with other parallel but connected disciplines. Together, we’ll explore alternative uses for and definitions of photography. We’ll also encourage you to conduct ‘practice-based research’: the process of familiarising yourself with a subject by making art about it.
You will be introduced to a range of artists who use photography as a means of documenting the world around them and becoming more familiar with it. We’ll then explore how, by ‘looking out’, your photography can act as a vector for developing your understanding of the world.
We will support you in developing a proposal for your final project. This is your time to reflect on all the knowledge, skills and perspectives you have gained throughout the course. What resonated most with you? What direction has your artistic practice taken? What themes would you like to expand on further in the future? Through your reflective journal, an oral presentation and a written proposal, you’ll articulate your final project idea.
Throughout this final unit, you’ll conduct and resolve your research-informed final project. Our tutors will support you in breaking down your final project into smaller, more manageable chunks. You will also receive constructive individual and peer feedback which will aid you in completing your project successfully.
Academic team
Lecturer and Unit Leader
Mark Leary is a practicing filmmaker and photographer who has spent 20 years observing ‘the beauty of banality in the everyday’. With his unique colour palette and beautiful lighting, he creates a familiar (almost nostalgic) feeling to his work whilst pertaining relevance to a modern, stylised aesthetic.
"Stay curious and actively engage with the material, seeking diverse resources to deepen your understanding while staying connected with peers and instructors for a richer learning experience."
James Elliott | Course Leader, MA Photography
Entry requirements
We encourage applications from students with a broad range of qualifications and we welcome students from all educational backgrounds. We’ll take into account the knowledge and skills that you have developed outside the classroom, as well as your previous qualifications.
There are two different routes to entry: the standard and non-standard routes. Admissions staff will assess entries to determine which route is appropriate for you when you apply.
Students accepted on the standard route are given offers based on qualifications and supporting documentation alone. If you do not have a qualification at the designated level or in a subject not directly related to the course to which you are applying, you’ll be contacted to request a portfolio, and/or given an interview date.
You'll usually have BA (Hons) Degree graded at 2.2 or above, or an equivalent UK or international qualification in photography or a related subject.
You'll usually have BA (Hons) Degree graded at 2.2 or above, or an equivalent UK or international qualification in photography or a related subject.
As an overseas applicant, you’ll need to validate your proficiency in English. We accept a range of English language qualifications:
- Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English (CAE) grade C
- Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE) grade C
- Certificate of Attainment in English (London Board) level 5 or 6
- IELTS score of 6.0 or above with at least 5.5 in each band
- TOEFL iBT score of 80 or above with 19 in speaking, and 18 in listening, reading and writing
- Pearson PTE score of 64 and over, with a score of 59 in each component
IELTS, Pearson, and TOEFL scores must be less than two years old at the time the course commences to be valid.
If you don’t have the standard academic qualifications, you could still be considered for entry if there’s sufficient evidence to indicate that you can fulfil the objectives of the course of study and achieve the standard of the final award. An example of this would be to showcase a portfolio of work as requested by the admissions team.
We also welcome applications from anyone with other qualifications or work experience that demonstrates appropriate knowledge and skills to study at postgraduate level.
Fees and funding
The fees that you pay AUB help provide the necessary services and training for you to complete your course. There are a number of different ways that you can pay for your tuition.
How to apply
Head to our online application form to apply directly to us. We encourage applications from students with a broad range of qualifications – we'll take into account the knowledge and skills that you've developed outside the classroom as well.
Careers in Photography
As a graduate of AUB Online’s MA Photography course, you’ll be poised for a diverse range of career paths across many industries. From a creative CV and artist’s statement to a professional website and online presence, we’ll give you all the important tools you need to get your name on the map. Our experts will also support you in submitting your work to open calls, exhibitions and competitions – so even before you graduate, you’ll be likely to have a foot in the door.
However, it’s important to remember that photography itself is just the first of many avenues you’ll unlock with this degree. With adaptable skills including visual literacy, a collaborative spirit, critical and reflective thinking and creative communication, the world really is your oyster.
Here are just some of the rewarding career options you could pursue with confidence:
You could also pursue opportunities in digital marketing and lecturing.
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Video transcripts
These part time online MA's aims at students from a wide variety of backgrounds. You don't necessarily have to have studied photography before, and many of our students come from related creative disciplines, such as fine art, design, film, and media. We take a broad and encompassing definition of photography, and I'm excited to welcome candidates from diverse backgrounds with a passion for photography.
This course would be perfect for students that are motivated and looking to learn through experimentation and a series of practical projects.
This course integrates practice, research, and creative theory with a comprehensive curriculum, which offers students the opportunity to explore both traditional definitions of photography and the many exciting possibilities becoming available within this constantly evolving discipline.
This course is centered around students' individual aspirations, experiences, and goals. And although this is an online remote course, we hope that our students will contribute to the wider community of learning at AUB.
Throughout the course, students will engage with a broad range of relevant contemporary topics through exercises which combine theoretical, contextual, and historical knowledge to support and enhance practical outcomes. Students will work through a diverse series of carousel modules, which will tackle issues and themes relevant to contemporary photography.
The carousel stage is designed to prepare students for their final thesis project, in which they will engage with the final major project supported through individual supervision and personally tailored support.
The Arts University Bournemouth in its many iterations has an enviable reputation stretching back over decades, especially in photography.
With alumni including such photographic luminaries as Nick Knight and Wolfgang Tillman to name but two. This course brings together an exciting team of lecturers from across our many interrelated photography courses.
Our lecturers bring a huge wealth of experience from all aspects of photographic practice, including decades of commercial experience alongside fine art and academic rigor to support our students to respond as individuals and develop their photographic practice into the future.
There are numerous advantages for studying online. You will have the flexibility to choose when you work to fit in around a busy life or other commitments. You'll have the opportunity and flexibility to choose where you work without being tied to a specific place. We hope that these online courses will expand the opportunities for students to study at AUB by mitigating some of the barriers that we know already exist.
Throughout the course, students will have the opportunity to develop relevant, creative, technical, and research skills through the practical activities within each of the modules. The course takes a symbiotic approach to theoretical and practical learning, considering each an essential element of the other and of equal importance in students developing their individual voices and understanding the many languages of photography.
In addition to direct photographic practice and related technical skills, students would explore, develop, and practice valuable transferable skills, such as problem solving, critical analysis and reflection, time and project management, and verbal and written communication.
Ultimately, this course is designed to allow students to develop the skills necessary to express their individual voice and achieve personal goals, whether they lie in commercial or professional photographic practice, or taking the next step in their academic journey.
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