Photography with Foundation BA Honours

Critical thinking is fundamental to our ability to progress in an increasingly complex and changing world. It is an essential skill across a range of academic and practice-based disciplines.

This module helps you understand the importance and function of critical thinking both at university and beyond. By working in partnership with academic staff and peers, you will explore how critical thinking aligns with disciplinary practices, shapes scholarly knowledge, and addresses inequalities. Through problem-posing education and anti-racist practices, you will engage with real-world problems, fostering the ability to create a more just and sustainable world.

This module provides you with an opportunity to develop a broad understanding of the key working methods, concepts and principles of the Art and Design disciplines within the Foundation course. You will be challenged to complete a sequence of short projects, working across a range of techniques within the subject disciplines. Self- evaluation and documenting your learning are both important elements of this process, and you will be learning by doing.

This Semester 2 module deepens and consolidates the fundamental skills, approaches and processes of Art and Design research and practice developed in Semester 1 through a practical Extended Project. It helps you to develop your creative practice, based on iterative practical, technical and contextual research, and undertaken through a negotiated project. With an overarching theme set across disciplinary pathways, you will work within a chosen discipline, with group and individual tutorial support, to develop a project proposal in response to the initial brief that after approval is realised through a body of work aimed at presentation in a public exhibition.

This Semester 1 module introduces fundamentals of Art and Design practice and research. It helps you to develop your individual creative practice based on an understanding of visual and contextual research processes through structured studio, research and technical activities.

This module introduces you to the key academic, professional, and personal skills essential for success at university. It encourages good practices in writing, presentation, and time management, while also fostering reflection to help you build confidence as you transition to higher education. Open to all students enrolled in courses delivered through Westminster Foundation Pathways, the module provides a creative and supportive environment where you can reflect on and develop your academic and professional journey. You'll work with specialist facilitators who play a crucial role in guiding your academic and professional development.

With a focus on managing academic choices in a higher education setting, the module emphasises the importance of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), using methodologies that prioritise equality, diversity, and inclusion. Through these lenses, you'll explore topics that prepare you to address real-world challenges as highlighted in the SDGs in a socially conscious, inclusive, and responsible manner.

Following the Art and Design modules of Semester 1, this module provides you with the opportunity to engage with some of the key themes and practices of Art and Design disciplines. You will be challenged to complete several projects of approximately one month’s duration, selecting techniques and working methods from the available disciplines. Self-evaluation and documenting your learning continue to be important elements of this process, and you will be learning by doing.

In this module, you are introduced to the practical, creative, and contextual possibilities of constructing photographic images in the studio and on location using lighting and staging. Through a series of workshops you'll be introduced to the fundamentals of exposure and composition using a digital camera, the use of electronic flash lighting, both in the studio and on location, as well as digital workflows; Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop and printing to create photographic work. Alongside this, you'll be introduced to key critical and historical debates and themes in photography through lectures, illustrated talks and seminars with a particular focus on genres such as portraiture, still life and tableau, its context, techniques and application within photography.

This module provides an induction and understanding of creative and collaborative research practice, assessment processes and group working required in creative practice subjects. The module will introduce you to the University’s commitment to the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs).

You'll be challenged to experiment individually, undertaking contextual and practical research, which will contribute to a significant group project where students will be allocated creative roles in groups working collaboratively.

As well as exploring creative processes, the module provides an opportunity for you to gain an understanding of other disciplines, and if you choose, to work with students from other disciplines, or use disciplinary approaches beyond your own course of study. It also introduces you to the wider community of creative practice at the Harrow Campus.

This module introduces you to a range of expanded and immersive photography practices. Through a series of workshops, technical demonstrations and supervised studio time, you'll explore expanded imaging practices, including in-game photography, AI-generated images, 3D image capture and computational image making. The module raises the question ‘What is a photograph/image?’, its cultural, social and commercial function within the rapidly changing visual industries. Through a series of lectures, you are introduced to a range of artistic and commercial practices produced with the use of these technologies. In this module, you are required to produce three series of visual works, which, alongside a contextual essay, enable them to develop the technical and theoretical learning acquired throughout the module.

This module introduces you to ways of understanding how photography communicates ideas to a range of audiences alongside developing an individual photographic approach. You'll learn to take responsibility for your learning and your development as a photographic creator through the integration of written and visual skills in a range of contemporary contexts. Topics covered include understanding the contexts of creative practice, articulation and structuring of ideas, use of visual and written strategies in a public-facing context, and critical awareness and use of new technologies. You'll be introduced to electronic journaling, website and portfolio development as well as other online presentation methods. This module is workshop-based, supported with seminars and tutorials, and uses continuous assessment to encourage ongoing reflection and development.

This module will introduce you to the major genre of fashion street photography as both a historical and contemporary practice. This will be explored through the production of a body of photographic work that considers particularly the functioning of identity and subcultures in street style. Through workshops, you'll gain a full introduction to specific technical skills of the genre and digital post-production relevant to a professional fashion industry context.

This module will introduce you to the practice of documentary and street photography. Through workshops you'll be introduced to the SLR camera and the full workflow for monochromatic analogue photography including hand film processing and printing. Alongside this, you'll be introduced to key critical and historical debates and themes in documentary photography through illustrated talks and seminars. Throughout the module you will research, shoot and print a body of photographic work which responds to the themes of the module.

In this module, you will combine practical experimentation and critical reflection in order to explore and develop your own photographic practice and research. Through a series of workshops, lectures, and seminars, you are introduced to advanced themes and practices in contemporary and historical photography, allowing you to define/refine an area of visual and written practice appropriate to your own ambitions and interests. The module introduces you to new ways of working with photography, including new technologies and sustainable practices. The module prepares you for more self-directed work at Level 6.

This module introduces you to industry norms and practices of identifying, researching and defining a response to a commercial brief or an open call. You will select a brief or a call for submissions from a given set and identify the requirements from the perspective of a potential client or art institution. By researching the chosen brief, you will generate a proposal/pitch with professional elements, such as required materials, technologies, budget, and timetable. The prepared proposal acts as the basis for a project in the form of a competition or exhibition entry, or a project potentially submitted to a client. You'll learn to present information in a concise and professional manner. The module tests your ability to work to industry standards, client-led requirements, and set deadlines.

This module introduces you to the professional creative industries and provides you with experience of related workplace environments, relevant to the host course, through a range of tailored professional projects, including a work placement (alternatives may include client-set briefs and curated public events). Taught sessions introduce different career possibilities and provide an overview of professional skills, as well as introducing you to relevant support within the University and external professional networks and support services.

This module introduces you to the use of experimental Computer Generated Imaging technology (CGI). Through a series of workshops, technical demonstrations and supervised studio time, you learn to produce photo-realistic 3D images. The module teaches you the different steps of CGI design, from object modelling and compositing to bias and GPU-accelerated rendering techniques, texturing and lighting, and points you to available online tools to deepen your technical learning independently. Contextual lectures enable you to gain an understanding of the artistic and commercial applications of CGI technology in the photography field. Guest talks by professional photographers introduce you to a range of career pathways available to CGI artists. In this module, you are required to produce a series of brief projects through an annotated portfolio, which, alongside a critical evaluation essay, enables you to develop the technical and contextual learning acquired throughout the module.

This module addresses collaborative working methods. Through group work, as well as individual research, you'll explore the complexities of collaborative practice in a variety of different social contexts; from fashion practices to activist collectives; from participatory photography to community engagement. The module allows you to forge your own paths, developing your own interests alongside your peers in order to engage with the core principles of collaborative work. Through the collaborative process, you'll be encouraged to put the principles of inclusivity into practice, learning from and empowering each other through respectful engagement with others’ experiences and points of view.

In this module, you are introduced to the practice of creating a body of work for the particular context of publishing. Through a series of workshops and tutorials, you'll develop a self-devised project. You will be asked to consider the institutional/professional context, the cultural and historical context, as well as the physical context where photographic publications are encountered. To support this, you shall introduce the main contexts for historical and contemporary photo publishing practices through lectures, seminars, workshops and talks by visiting practitioners working in these contexts. This module will introduce you to book/magazine binding, publishing software, the publishing workflow, as well as different output/printing methods relevant for this area.

This module discusses how photographs function in the virtual space. The module consists of illustrated lectures on current photographic practices and critical discussions, combined with relevant practical projects. It enables you to develop an understanding of contemporary issues around the production and distribution of images in the networked environment and to become critical and ethical users of the online space. The networks examined are based on the Internet and include, but are not limited to, social media, artificial intelligence applications, mass media platforms, and online marketing. Themes addressed will be drawn from contemporary debates and discourses relating to changing technologies, emerging research and departmental expertise.

This module introduces you to the practice and theory of videography, with the aim of developing a moving image project for an art, fashion, or music context. Through workshops and illustrated lectures, the module explores video-making in practical and theoretical terms, including the rise of video art and its current position within the world of photography. You will be introduced to technical skills in video production, including cinematography, the role of movement in videography, moving image editing, and sound design and editing. Individually, you formulate an idea for a moving image project approximately 5-10mins in length for your chosen context. Using the skills acquired, you will then work to realise the project to be submitted as part of a portfolio of assessments, which will include documentation of the process, relevant research and theory, and a critical evaluation of the result.

Building upon the work completed for the Photography Major Project Research module, you will produce a fully resolved body of work that takes into account the requirements of placing the work into the public domain by refining existing ideas and knowledge, as well as developing new ideas and concepts. You have the option to create one major project or a suite of smaller projects based on your chosen concept or theme.

Building on the work completed for the Photography Major Project Research module, students produce a fully resolved body of work that takes into account the requirements of placing the work into the public domain by refining existing ideas and knowledge as well as developing new ideas and concepts.

The Research Project is an extended piece of work, building on a proposal developed at Level 5 in the host course. Through self-initiated research, you'll identify an appropriate topic relevant to your discipline and embark on a process of supervised but independent inquiry. A distinctive feature of this Research Project is that it is a substantial piece of critical academic work, which embeds research and a theoretical framework as appropriate for a dissertation but offers you options in terms of output format. The format might be that of a Dissertation (8,000 words), but alternative forms are also available, to be negotiated and agreed with your project supervisor.

This module is designed to help you prepare for your career after graduation. You will produce a physical professional photographic portfolio or an alternative in accordance with industry conventions to support your career development. Through a series of lectures, workshops and independent study, you'll develop skills appropriate to a range of relevant career opportunities, including career research, compiling a CV, engaging with potential employers, clients, postgraduate study and grant application.