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Photography: Documentary, Landscape, Politics (863P4)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring teaching

This module introduces you to a range of work connected with the documentary/landscape genres, both historical and contemporary.

The module is practice-led. It will also be crucial to focus on the problematics of documentary and consider theoretical concerns and ethical issues for photographers. Though the emphasis is on the particular humanistic documentary photography tradition, it is this attitude from the past, the ethical dimensions and your careful relationships with subjects, which are important, rather than stylistic clichés.

You may wish to employ standard photographic approaches – through use of the DSLRs available to you, or your own equipment – but we also encourage you to think about the landscape very broadly, which might include 'found photography', gaming environments, VR, or readily available facilities such as Street View.

Combinations with other media, the significance of text with image, captions and so forth or sound will be discussed. The means by which photographic materials can be disseminated nowadays will be important to consider too, including the significance of choices about whether or not to print, whether gallery settings matter to you, or whether publishing online, via social media or other contemporary platforms, is more appropriate. Important questions include who the work is about, who it is for, and what your motives are.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 267 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.