MA Photography

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.

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.