Photography (with integrated foundation year)

Capture the world in its many facets and faces. Create and seize unique moments in time. Explore your creative passion and bring it to life.

Based on our dedicated arts campus, this photography degree with an integrated foundation year will help you explore your creative passion and become a professional photographer.

Course Overview
Our foundation course in photography will give you a strong grounding to experience life through the camera lens to advance your studies to degree level.

You’ll learn all the essential photography basics - how to use a variety of cameras, both digital and film, how to make creative images, work in a studio and on location, and how to print your photos to a high standard.

In addition, on this photography course you’ll explore historical and contemporary photographers and images to encourage you to develop your own style and flourish as a photographer ready for year one of the degree course.

Former students have gone into a range of photographic careers, become freelance photographers, curators and editors and some have secured solo exhibitions in art galleries just months after graduating.

On this course you will:

• Develop your photographic and editing skills while experimenting during workshops and outdoor activities.

• Work with students across the creative arts, collaborating on projects and exploring new mediums.

• Be taught by industry experts with experience working freelance and within creative organisations.

• Have the opportunity to exhibit your work publicly alongside the work of classmates across the arts.

What you will learn
Photography is a fantastically versatile discipline and as such offers many routes into employment within the creative industries.

At the University of Cumbria, we have designed a programme that allows you to experiment with techniques, develop your practical skills, study through critical thinking and enquiry.

Informed by the clear integration of practice and theory, and by an expectation of your intellectual engagement in Photography practice, you will develop transferable skills.

Year One

• Making Images

• Making Objects

• Visual Enquiry

• Environment

• Portfolio and Progression

Year Two

• Photographic Image Capture

• Cultural Contexts

• Picturing Place: Culture & Identity

• Collaborative Practice

Year Three

• Networks & Narratives: Photography in the Community

• Immersive Image-Making

• The Photographic Interface: Industry Experience

• Theorising Photography

Year Four

• Blueprint of Practice

• Independent Research Paper

• Resolution of Practice

A key feature of this IFY programme is the opportunity to work closely with a range of specialist creative staff, as well as alongside students studying fine-art, graphic design and illustration.

By learning as an integrated member of this creative community you will experience, first-hand, the methods and techniques used by other visual practitioners. This will foster an appreciation of how your work fits into the wider world of the visual arts and provide you with greater confidence, knowledge and skills as you progress to Level 4 of the programme.

Most of your studies will be centred around practical projects that have been designed to not only help you practice and improve visual skills, but also develop your study skills, methods of research, critical and analytical abilities, and your ability to manage your time and plan your work.

A range of graded and non-graded assessments will take place throughout the course. Our programme is designed to encourage inquiry, curiosity, and the exploration of personal interests, allowing you to tailor briefs as you become more confident in your practice. Work and learning outcomes are in tune with industry demands, preparing you for professional practice through portfolios, exhibitions, photo books, and mock interviews.

You’ll be continuously involved in the assessment of your own work and that of your peers; developing critical interpersonal and team-working skills. Examples of the assessment types you will tackle include: Class critiques, written essays, peer review, portfolio reviews, mock interviews, and exhibitions.