Photography

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Photography

Summary

At the Belfast School of Art we strive to develop unique photographic voices, which sit firmly at the cutting-edge of a contemporary international context, while also mining the specifics of our unique geographical and cultural position.

We have been profiled by the British Journal of Photography as one of the most significant photography schools in Europe. Our graduates work internationally between the book, gallery, web and magazine, continually challenging photography's place within contemporary society and the way we photograph now.

The teaching team is comprised of contemporary practising photographers, writers and thinkers who exhibit and publish internationally. These are Professor Paul Seawright, Ailbhe Greaney, Dr KayLynn Deveney, Ken Grant, and Clare Gallagher as well as two members of the prestigious Magnum agency, Martin Parr and Donovan Wylie. We have a progamme of Guest Lecturers, recently including Hannah Starkey, Guy Martin, and Donald Weber. Throughout the programme students develop an awareness of photography as it exists in a culture of evolving technologies. They are challenged to rethink their practice both visually, theoretically and contextually. Our close links with photographic galleries and photography festivals helps students to build networks and professional practice. The programme is complemented by a series of master classes and advanced skill workshops; an annual field trip to Paris and regular site visits to a variety of cultural institutions such as museums and galleries in Ireland, the UK and Europe.

About

The MFA Photography has an international reputation and is available for study on campus in Belfast (Thursday delivery) and fully online (eLearning) for students living and working outside Ireland. A Master of Fine Arts degree is a creative degree, which centers around practice in a particular field, in this case Photography. The qualification provides students with a high level of specialisation and allows graduates to teach at University level.

The MFA Photography degree exposes students to key critical debates in photography and offers a dynamic environment in which to develop a major body of photographic work for exhibition and publication. Staff are leaders in the field of photography. Internationally recognised photographers, artists and researchers regularly review student projects, give lectures and critique photographic work.

Guest Lecturers have recently included: Hannah Starkey, Brian Griffin, Mark Power, Anna Fox, Wendy McMurdo, Doug DuBois, Simon Roberts, Chloe Dewe Mathews, Leonie Hampton, Gareth McConnell, Raphael Dallaporta, WassinkLundgren, Rob Hornstra, Raimond Wouda, Lotte Sprengers, Corinne Noordenbos, Stephen Bull, Gerry Badger, Louise Clements, Tim Clark, Adam Murray and Liz Wells.

The course looks to recruit photographers that are serious about challenging their working methods and extending their visual vocabulary. The course has excellent links with galleries and museums and draws on an exemplary network of artists to create a study environment that is stimulating and encourages experimentation.

Structure & content

The programme is delivered through a range of learning methods, including seminars, presentations, tutorials and group critiques, to enable students to acquire the cognitive skills of a self-reflexive independent learner. There are optional exit points for students to exit with a PGDip or MA.

Teaching and learning assessment

The teaching, learning and assessment is developed and delivered through several modes:

Reviewing Practice

The course is orientated around an initial review of student practice and re-visiting key debates in photographic history and theory. This facilitates the development of two project proposals to initially be developed in parallel for review at the end of the first semester.

Weekly lectures and seminars are delivered along with individual tutorials:

To enable you to develop different conceptual models of practice

To enable you to test a variety of different modes of production and resolution

To enable you to extend the parameters of your own research and make use of appropriate methodologies and techniques

To enable you to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your practice

Tutorials

Regular individual tutorials provide you with the opportunity to discuss in depth conceptual and practical concerns around your work. They provide an opportunity for a considered discussion of ongoing work and an analysis of feedback and responses to work to date.

Lectures

Lectures are used to deliver key information and material related to research methodologies and professional practice. Lectures are delivered by staff and invited experts/visiting lecturers from relevant professional fields. Students are expected to use the lectures as a starting point for more intensive and focused study appropriate to their own practice.

Seminars

Seminars are used to develop your knowledge of, and ability to employ the theoretical tools required for critical analysis in cultural practice. This method of teaching is designed to build confidence in oral communication, and to encourage learning through group discussion and debate.

Student Presentations

Student presentations are used to encourage you to undertake independent critical appraisal of your studio practice and its cultural context in order to make use of material presented in lectures and seminars. You are expected to make effective use of research material and to organise and deliver an oral presentation using audio/visual or image/text components.

Studio Critiques

Studio critiques are used to provide you with an opportunity to evaluate critically the work of your fellow students and to receive critical responses to your own work. Studio critiques are led by a number of core staff and visiting professionals whose role is to encourage the active participation of all students and to contribute to the critical discussion.

Group Tutorials

These differ from studio critiques in that the generation of the dialogue is led by the subject student.

Feedback

Feedback is a very valuable element in the course delivery and takes many forms as formative and summative feedback. It is important that you realise that feedback is a two-way activity and that education and art making are part of a continual process of evaluation, feedback and adjustment. This may be between tutor/student, student/tutor, student/student or art-work/artist. Its value is not underestimated and it occurs throughout most forms of delivery but especially in the critiques and tutorials and assessment process.

Exhibiting

Exhibition opportunities inside and outside the University are employed throughout the course to extend your understanding of your own practice and professional context.

Field Trips

These include visits to galleries and art events. Field Trips provide important knowledge of art through direct experience and insight into the professional realm.

Demonstrations

Demonstrations deliver relevant skills and processes. Technical workshops also include Health and Safety in relation to the operation of machinery and equipment.

Formal assessment

Formal assessment takes place at key points within the course and includes assessment of the artwork produced along with written and oral summaries.

Work placement / study abroad

The programme is complemented by a series of master classes and advanced skill workshops; an annual field trip to Paris and regular site visits to a variety of cultural institutions such as museums and galleries in Ireland, the UK and Europe.

Entry requirements

Entry Requirements

Applicants must hold:

i) a second class honours degree or higher from a university of the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland, from the Council for National Academic Awards, the National Council for Educational Awards, the Higher Education Training Awards Council, or from an institution of another country which has been recognised as being of an equivalent standard; or

ii) an equivalent standard (normally 50%) in a Graduate Diploma, Graduate Certificate, Postgraduate Certificate or Postgraduate Diploma or an approved alternative qualification.

In exceptional circumstances, where an individual has substantial and significant experiential learning, a portfolio of written evidence demonstrating the meeting of graduate abilities (including subject-specific outcomes, as determined by the Course committee) may be considered as an alternative entrance route. Evidence used to demonstrate graduate qualities may not be used for exemption against modules within the programme.

In all cases applicants must provide a portfolio of practical work at interview or on application.

English Language Requirements

English language requirements for international applicants

The minimum requirement for this course is Academic IELTS 6.0 with no band score less than 5.5. Trinity ISE: Pass at level III also meets this requirement for Tier 4 visa purposes.

Ulster recognises a number of other English language tests and comparable IELTS equivalent scores.

Duration

Attendance

Full-time 4 Semesters - Belfast Campus or Online: September - January; January - June; September - January; January - June;

All the core teaching takes place on Thursdays and you should expect to be on campus from 10am - 7pm. During this time you will engage in one-to-one tutorials, a lecture programme delivered by staff and visiting guest speakers, group seminars, group critiques and technical workshops. The rest of the week is spent attending optional tutorials/workshops and engaging in independent study.

The primary assessment method is the evaluation of photographic work in progress. Students work over the duration of the course on a major body of work that is subjected to regular and rigorous critique by staff and internationally renowned visiting photographers. Other assessment methods are visual presentations, seminar presentations, essays and a final year dissertation. There is an interim exhibition which is assessed at the end of the first year, usually in a public gallery.

Careers or further progression

Career options

Graduates are prepared for advanced careers in the field of photography. Graduates work as photographers in the fine art and commercial sector, as well as industry professionals. An MFA develops the ability to perform research related to the photographic arts, while also building communication skills and introducing students to new aesthetics and new technology. Such key skills enable graduates to work as photographic curators, editors and critics, within museums, galleries and in publishing. MFA graduates may also pursue a career in education.