module specification

The FA4009 Techniques: Photography module introduces students to and engages them with digital and analogue photography and approaches to photographic production. Focusing upon key skills and concepts, the module introduces students to relevant photography materials, processes and techniques for the development of ideas and photographs, enabling students to make quick, heuristic connections between intention, process, and outcome.

The module involves a series of demonstrations and exercises, introducing and developing basic skills and techniques relevant to photography practice. Allied with the FA4007 Visual Intelligence module, the module supports an applied understanding of visual and technical literacy through development of project work, negotiated between tutor and student.

In the FA4009 Techniques: Photography module students are expected to look for and construct relationships between and across modules. Students are encouraged to test out and explore different methods of enquiry and approaches to practice through photography.

FA4009 Techniques: Photography serves and sustains awards in the BA Photography and BA Fashion Photography courses only, delivered in a seamless and integral relationship with the work of other core modules on Level 4. Students are expected to investigate and develop critical and aesthetic working relationships between and across the Level 4 modules.

This module aims to enable students to test methods of enquiry introduced in other modules by applying photography processes and techniques effectively, with students learning to operate digital and analogue cameras with fluency and control, to use workshop equipment with confidence and ease and to post-produce digital images using photo-editing software with agility. The module thus aims to give maximum opportunities in the practical aspects of photography, enabling students to show respect and consideration for photographs by their careful printing and finishing, with due attention to professional and organised archiving.

At the beginning of the module, its aims and key concepts will be outlined to all students. Sessions will then be organised in three blocks of projects across the year, passing student groups through a programme of photography technique workshops in digital and analogue traditions (LO1) that then serve the programme of projects across the year.

The programme of photography technique workshops will demonstrate and induct in the complex operations of both digital and analogue cameras (LO2) and darkroom techniques.

Sessions will be also spent in learning skills in the post-production of complex digital images using photo-editing software (LO3), as well as in the printing and finishing of photographic prints and in the organised tagging and archiving of digital images (LO4).

Scheduled teaching ensures that independent study is effective and addresses the learning outcomes and assessment tasks. Students are expected to (and to have the opportunity to) continue with their studies outside of scheduled classes. There will be a range of learning strategies deployed and individual learning styles will be accommodated. The module’s learning outcomes, its contents and delivery, have been scrutinised and will be regularly reviewed to ensure an inclusive approach to pedagogic practice.

The module and course utilise the University’s blended learning platform to support and reinforce learning, to foster peer-to-peer communication and to facilitate tutorial support for students. Reflective learning is promoted through assessment items and interim formative feedback points that ask students to reflect on their progress, seek help where they identify the opportunity for improvement in learning strategies and outcomes, and make recommendations to themselves for future development. Throughout the module, students build a body of work, including reflections on progress and achievement.

The School’s programme of employability events and embedded work-related learning within the curriculum supports students’ personal development planning. Through these initiatives, students are increasingly able, as they progress from year to year, to understand the professional environment of their disciplines, the various opportunities available to them, and how to shape their learning according to their ambitions.

On completing the module, students should be able to:

1. test methods of enquiry and processes by applying them effectively via art or lens-based media;
2. operate digital and analogue cameras with confidence;
3. post-produce images using photo-editing software with facility;
4. produce digital and analogue photographic prints of high quality with precision, taking care of originals by protection, packing and organised archiving.

The FA4009 Techniques: Photography module’s single assessment item is a Set Exercises coursework, in which the technical elements of 3 studio practice projects undertaken and handed-in at 3 hand-in points over the year and an exhibition are collated and assembled in one projects folder for summative assessment in May. At the end of each project each student will present their work to an audience of peers for a formative assessment, to be grouped in one collective, summative assessment in May.

The assessment strategy includes formative assessments throughout the Level, with tutorial feedback designed to encourage and help students to develop and improve their work. These will inform the student of their progress through the course. An interim review offers a specific opportunity to reflect on the work in relation to the module’s learning outcomes and this together with finished project work and all supporting material will inform the assessment panel at the summative assessment at the end of the Level.

Students will evaluate their own learning on the module using the criteria given and write a short critical appraisal (summary statement) of their work. This will provide the basis for discussion at the assessment feedback session after the formal coursework assessment has taken place.

Summative assessment takes place at the end of the module. Written feedback addresses the strengths and weaknesses of individual presentations in relation to the grading criteria.

Core Textbooks:
Diprose, G. (2012) Photography: The New Basics: Principles, Techniques and Practice, London: Thames and Hudson
Evening, M. (2018) Adobe Photoshop CC for Photographers 2018, Oxford: Focal Press
Evening, M. (2017) Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC Book 2018, Adobe
Fox, A. and Sawdon Smith, R. (2015) Langford’s Basic Photography: The Guide for Serious Photographers, Oxford: Focal Press

Additional Textbooks:
Bates, D. (2011) Photography; The Key Concepts, London: Bloomsbury Academic
Barrett, T. (2011) Criticizing Photographs, New York: McGraw Hill Publishing
Faris Belt, A. (2011) Elements of Photography, Oxford: Focal Press
Freeman, M. (2011) The Digital SLR Handbook, Sussex: Ilex
Lubben, K. (2017) Magnum Contact Sheets, London: Thames & Hudson
Lowe, P. and Norfolk, S. (2016) Photography Masterclass: Creative Techniques of 100 Great Photographers, London: Thames and Hudson

Journals:
British Journal of Photography
Hotshoe
Source

Websites:
Associated Press Archive, https://www.ap.org/en-gb/formats/archive
Process Supplies (London) - Stocking photographic materials, https://www.processuk.net/
Silverprint, Photographic Supplies, https://www.silverprint.co.uk/

Electronic Databases:
Mass Observation Online

Social Media Sources
Cass BA Photography, @thecassphoto
Trolley Books, @trolleybooks
Fotografiska, @fotografiska
Foam Amsterdam, @foam_amsterdam