Program Overview

MA Photography

The MA Photography course provides a dynamic opportunity for students to test, push, and extend the current boundaries of the photographic medium. Students will explore photography through the medium's rich critical and technological contexts and develop their creative practice in line with their individual interests and professional ambitions.

Course Overview

The course is situated inside the School of Digital Arts and Manchester School of Arts, blending a mixture of cutting-edge technological processes. Students will be able to encounter the way that images are translated and transformed through AR and VR, 3D scanning and printing, and UV printing, as well as image transfer to CNC milling and laser cutting. They will also have access to the full range of hands-on art school technical resources, including black, white, and color darkrooms, photographic and moving image studios, screen printing, bookbinding, and wood workshops.

Features and Benefits

• Students will join a course that fosters interesting and diverse engagement with external partners within Manchester, the region, nationally, and internationally.
• They will become an integral part of the School of Digital Arts, home to a creative community of interdisciplinary research staff with expertise in diverse fields of practice.
• Students will have the space, guidance, and technical resources to enable them to develop their independent photographic practice.
• They will have the opportunity to extend and develop their experience in the professional sphere by being introduced to the school's close links with national and international educational partners, research communities, and strong links with the creative and digital sectors across the UK.

Year 1

Core Modules

• Co-Lab 6 (Photography): This module provides the space where the four SODA research themes are investigated, explored, and applied.
• Interdisciplinary Practice 1 (Photography): Students will develop and broaden their technical skill set and explore the creative possibilities within the context of their own practice.
• Interdisciplinary Practice 2 (Photography): Students will develop a series of project outcomes that question and create relationships between ideas of the photographic and associated creative practices.
• Independent Project: Through this independent project module, students will have the opportunity to apply the contextual knowledge and interdisciplinary skills that they developed in the previous modules to produce a body of self-directed work.

Option Modules

• Skills in XR Storytelling
• Reimagining Technologies
• Experience in XR Storytelling
• Sociotechnical Design
• Critical Study
• Perspectives
• Sustainability and Digital Arts
• Digital Art Activism
• Spaces in XR Storytelling
• Professional Practice

Study and Assessment

• Full-time: 20% lectures, seminars, or similar; 0% placement; 80% independent study
• Part-time: 20% lectures, seminars, or similar; 0% placement; 80% independent study
• Full-time: 100% coursework; 0% practical; 0% examination
• Part-time: 100% coursework; 0% practical; 0% examination

Entry Requirements

• Students should have at least a 2:2 undergraduate UK honors degree in a relevant discipline.
• Equivalent EU/international qualifications are also accepted.
• Overseas applicants will require IELTS with an overall score of 6.5 with no less than 5.5 in any category, or an equivalent accepted English language qualification.

Fees and Funding

• UK and Channel Island students: Full-time fee £12,000 per year, Part-time fee £2000 per 30 credits
• EU and non-EU international students: Full-time fee £22,000 per year, Part-time fee £3667 per 30 credits

Careers Support and Prospects

• 93.7% of UK-domiciled, full-time, postgraduate taught graduates are employed or in further study 15 months after graduation.
• The course, and wider faculty within which SODA is based, offer excellent links with partners within Manchester, nationally, and internationally.
• Graduates from the course will be equipped to go into diverse fields of employment related to their subject, such as teaching, research, publishing, and curating.