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BA (Hons) - Photography

Kickstart your photography career on an Association of Photographers (AOP) accredited course, where two-thirds of your time is dedicated to hands-on, practical learning. Our BA (Hons) Photography degree provides a deep understanding of production outcomes for image editing, print, and web platforms through technical workshops and personalised practical support.

You’ll have access to industry-standard facilities, including blackand-white and specialist colour darkrooms with a Colenta colour processor, as well as three versatile, fully equipped shooting studios.

Our dedicated professional photography technician and expert tutor team will support your individual creative development, build your skill set, and prepare you for a career as a professional photographer.

You will work both on location and on campus, with inspiring field trips and the spectacular Lake District on your doorstep—offering natural environments, diverse culture, and countless outdoor activities to engage with.

A programme of visiting professional photographers provides workshops and expert guidance, leading to valuable networking opportunities and industry insights that will shape your creative practice and future career.

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Accredited by:

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Association of Photographers

Course Overview

The BA (Hons) Photography degree offers the opportunity to explore your creativity and photographic practice, encouraging you to experiment across genres such as studio portraiture, documentary, editorial, commercial, and landscape photography. Whether you're capturing compelling narratives or crafting striking visual compositions, you'll build a strong creative identity, and a versatile skill set that reflects the demands of today’s photography industry.

Studying at our specialist arts campus, you’ll be immersed in a supportive creative community and spend two thirds of your time developing hands-on skills in both digital and analogue photography. With expert guidance, you’ll explore image-making techniques, visual storytelling, and the professional workflows needed to produce work for both print and digital platforms.

We operate an open-door policy and will be on hand to help you hone your work whenever you need us. Our experienced tutors bring real-world insights from current industry practice, helping you stay ahead of trends and technologies. Regular guest lectures, workshops, and industry-led projects provide valuable exposure to professional perspectives. You'll also have the chance to take part in inspirational field trips, collaborative projects, and public exhibitions—preparing you for a successful career in the fast-evolving creative industries.

On this course you will...

  • Develop your photographic and editing skills while experimenting during workshops and outdoor activities.
  • Work with students across the creative arts, collaborating on projects and exploring new mediums.
  • Be taught by industry experts with experience working freelance and within creative organisations.
  • Have the opportunity to exhibit your work publicly alongside the work of classmates across the arts.
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Course Structure

What you will learn

Photography is a fantastically versatile discipline and as such offers many routes into employment within the creative industries.

At the University of Cumbria, we have designed a programme that allows you to experiment with techniques, develop your practical skills, study through critical thinking and enquiry.

Informed by the clear integration of practice and theory, and by an expectation of your intellectual engagement in Photography practice, you will develop transferable skills.

Year one

In your first year, you will focus on The Photographic Environment which deals with the cornerstone craft of photographic image capture, both analogue and digital, in application to and investigation of, your photographic interests.

Research and contextual skills will be established at this level as we introduce the work of significant photographers and explore how influences and themes can be tracked through history, thereby setting the stage for the development of your own work.

  • Photographic Image Capture
    An introduction to technical skills in digital & analogue photographic contexts.
  • Cultural Contexts
    An introduction to the cultural, historical and social contexts in which creative work from a range of disciplines will be considered
  • Picturing Place: Culture & Identity
    Explore the idea of place; different environments, cultures and identities informed by locale.
  • Collaborative Practice
    Develop your ability to collaborate in professional scenarios through problem-solving and project-based learning.
Year two

In your second year, you will explore the Relevant Photograph. This attends to socially engaged practice. Working with the local community and culture with input from industry professionals you will learn to apply your craft to a greater purpose. You will also develop your contextual explorations into photographic theory, critical thinking, and analysis.

We have developed an enrichment module in year two where you can experience and practice traditional techniques and cutting-edge technologies.

Creating the space for experiment and play is enormously valuable in promoting creativity, problem-solving skills, risk-taking, and imagination. The module is intended to expand your practice skills midway through your degree enabling you to explore your own potential and readying you for a more focused journey through your final year and employment beyond that.

  • Networks & Narratives: Photography in the Community
    Explore contemporary themes in photography.
  • Immersive Image-Making
    Enrich your personal photographic practice by experimenting with both traditional and cutting-edge technologies.
  • The Photographic Interface: Industry Experience
    An opportunity to explore your practice through a range of briefs set by industry professionals.
  • Theorising Photography
    Develop the skills to think critically and generate original ideas informed by examples of influential scholarship.
Year three

Your final year will revolve around an Independent Showcase where you will take full charge of your own practice and bring it into the public domain.

Research, practice and professional skills come together in the final year of study to refine and showcase your personal vision and expression of photographic practice. At this point, you will be an independent, intelligent and competent practitioner with a personal portfolio representing the breadth of your skill and the depth of your engagement.

  • Blueprint of Practice
    Refine your autonomous photographic practice through the synthesis of research and creativity.
  • Independent Research Paper
    Develop specialised and focused knowledge and understanding of a subject of your own choice.
  • Resolution of Practice
    Carry out a self-designed, in-depth, and investigative personal project.

Attend an Open Day at Cumbria

An Open Day is your opportunity to explore one of 5 campuses, meet your lecturers, and find out how the University of Cumbria could become your new home.

Take the next step towards achieving your dreams.
A student stands in front of a wall splattered with paint.