| Program start date | Application deadline |
| 2024-09-01 | - |
Program Overview
Middlesex University's MA Photography program is a practice-led course that emphasizes experimentation, research, and critical thinking. It offers a blended learning environment with both in-person and online components, providing flexibility for diverse learning styles. The program equips students with advanced technical skills, critical analysis abilities, and a strong foundation for a successful career in the creative industries. Graduates have achieved recognition in prestigious competitions, showcasing the program's commitment to nurturing talented photographers.
Program Outline
Degree Overview:
You will have access to world-class academic staff, dedicated technical support, as well as some of the best traditional and state-of-the-art facilities in the UK. You will undertake photographic projects, individually or collaboratively, exploring both established and innovative methods in photography. Whether your focus lies behind the camera, in post-production, or critically reflecting on your practice, you'll receive comprehensive support from experienced research-active photography practitioners. The course also benefits from access to a wide range of esteemed professionals, guest lecturers, and technical experts who amplify both your photography knowledge and industry exposure. This program offers both online and on-campus components to accommodate diverse learning styles and schedules. The course further provides you with cutting-edge resources, including Apple Macintosh Pro workstations, A2 Epson printers, Hasselblad film scanners, studios, a range of darkrooms (color, black and white, digital), and much more.
Delivery Methods:
MA Photography thrives upon a blended learning environment, incorporating both in-person and online teaching methods. This hybrid format enhances accessibility for diverse students and ensures an enriching learning experience for all participants.
Duration & Modes
The program offers two study formats:
- full-time: 1 year
- Advanced Research Skills (15 credits) : Develop critical research methods and gain exposure to emerging research materials relevant within the framework of your creative work.
- Contexts: Materials and Methods (15 credits) :: Select from a list of specialist seminars to deepen your expertise and practical understanding of methods and materials within your specialization.
- Collaborate: Strategies for Change (30 credits) : This module serves as a catalyst, enabling you to harness photography as a fundamentally collaborative practice and equip you with effective strategies for successfully working in collaboration with others. You are also encouraged to define the purpose, objectives of your work, cultivate your networks of participants/contacts within the relevant professional fields, as needed. The culmination of collaborative efforts within this module will be a digital brochure showcasing the collaborative work produced as a peer group.
- Contexts: Critical Review (15 credits) : Further refine your critical review and analysis abilities within your chosen area of knowledge and specialization through a series of elective seminar courses led by diverse researchers within the university. This elective format provides students with the opportunity to explore new frontiers of knowledge, refine their critical understanding encompassing broader contexts relevant to their creative practice.
- Positioning your Research (15 credits) : Culminates your journey as a confident, accomplished researcher and communicator. The module functions as a showcase platform for peer review and public engagement to facilitate professional development and consolidate knowledge encompassing research scope, methods, context, and your Master's project practice, ultimately shaping you into a well-rounded researcher and creative practitioner. By consolidating discoveries made during exploration, collaboration, research, critical analysis, and context exploration phases, the module challenges you to present a rigorously investigated body of work that reflects your refined artistic identity.
Assessment:
Your skills, knowledge, and understanding are exclusively evaluated through coursework. This includes practical projects that showcase your creative vision, oral presentations demonstrating your articulation and communication abilities, and supporting written works.
Academic Support:
You are equipped with a robust support network throughout this program. This support encompasses diverse learning domains and ensures you develop the necessary academic skills for achieving success within your course.
Teaching:
Teaching Methodology Summary
We continuously adapt and improve upon our courses, incorporating new and innovative learning approaches to optimize your educational experience. The MA Photography program utilizes a structured format, divided into five modules taught across three semesters (for full-time students). Each module is meticulously crafted to foster flexibility while equipping you with the skills to implement your own photography interests within your assignments. The program facilitates exploration within the framework of expanding contemporary photographic practice through various avenues like experimentation, research, analysis, and creative exploration.
Delivery Format
The MA Photography program adopts a blended format, incorporating a seamless mix of in-person and online delivery methods. This approach caters to students' diverse schedules and preferred learning environments while enhancing accessibility for a wider audience.
Timetable & Learning Breakdown
Here's a typical breakdown of the average weekly learning hours and delivery formats:
Live in-person on campus learning:
- Contact hours per week, per level:
- Part-time: 5 hours
- Full-time: 10 hours
Self-paced learning time
- Average hours per week, per level:
- Part-time: 5 hours
- Full-time: 10 hours
On demand resources
- Average hours per week, per level: 2 hours Apart from these structured learning hours, you are expected to spend additional hours on independent study. This independent study time encompasses activities like preparation, reading materials, audio resources, reflective exercises on other learning activities, preparation for upcoming classes. This aspect typically accounts for an estimated 1200 hours over the course of a year for the entire program, inclusive of all learning styles. Students undertaking a placement may have additional hours for placement-specific activities.
Glossary of Terminology
- Live in-person on-campus Learning entails active learning and experiential sessions led by your tutors, covering:
- Seminars led by tutors and designed specifically for your year group, covering theoretical and technical learning through active participation
- Workshops, facilitated by tutors to promote skill-building in a collaborative and active learning environment, covering essential photographic techniques
- These components of live learning format are pre-scheduled by tutors and form part of the structured program.
- Live Online Learning encompasses lectures delivered online:
- Lectures, presented by your assigned tutor and taking place at pre-designated times.
- Tutorials, facilitated by your tutor to promote interaction and provide individual feedback, organized within specific schedules.
- This also encompasses online group work, which takes place within virtual environments and schedules set by tutors.
- Tutor-set Learning Activities: These activities, specified by your tutor, provide independent learning opportunities for honing specific skills and enhancing understanding. These activities allow you to manage your time flexibly and adjust your learning schedule according to your individual preferences, offering valuable autonomy in your studies. Examples of tutor-set learning activities:
- Online materials: Engaging with e-books, journals, expert articles, research papers, or designated websites to supplement your understanding of theoretical frameworks, historical contexts, and relevant photographic movements, techniques, etc.
- Online forums: Participating actively in moderated discussion forums hosted online, facilitating knowledge-sharing conversations, peer feedback, and group learning experiences.
- Virtual workshops: Attending curated virtual workshops focusing on enhancing practical skills in diverse areas, like editing techniques, studio lighting setups, composition and framing for specific objectives, or in-depth aspects related to analogue or digital printing and darkroom processes.
- Reading specific texts: Carefully studying assigned chapters or selected reading materials from curated book lists and research journals as designated by the tutor.
- You can undertake some of these tasks individually or collaboratively with peers, depending on your course and project type.
Careers:
Our alumni have earned global recognition for the high caliber of their photographic works, earning accolades and success shortly upon completing their studies. Notably, numerous graduates have been recognized as winners and finalists within prestigious competitions. Some recent achievements include winning entries in the renowned British Journal of Photography Portrait of Britain competiton, the coveted finalist status in the National Gallery’s Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, and a highly prestigious award in the Sony WPO Student Focus Award competition. These accomplishments showcase the strength of this program and its graduates, highlighting its exceptional ability to nurture talented and ambitious photographers towards successful professional journeys.
UK students Full-time students: £10,500 Part-time students: £70 per credit Part-time students: £35 per dissertation credit International students Full-time students: £16,800 Part-time students: £112 per credit Part-time students: £56 per dissertation credit
