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- BA (Hons) Commercial Photography
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BA (Hons) Commercial Photography
- Duration: 3–5 years full-time
- Placement year: Optional 1 year
- Course code: W644 (UCAS)
- Institution code: A66 (UCAS)
BA (Hons) Commercial Photography course details
This course gives you the opportunity to develop a specialist career, working within fashion/beauty, advertising, documentary/editorial and portrait photography. Through the combination of creative and technical skill, you'll challenge perceptions and push boundaries, through making imagery that's at the forefront of contemporary photographic practice.
We’ll help you to gain a broad understanding of photographic practice and theory, so that you graduate confidently with the creative and critical visual language needed to work in the industry, both as an individual and within a creative team.
If you want the opportunity to set the future agenda for commercial photography, and have the commitment and drive to make the most of every opportunity, this is the course for you.
Three reasons to study BA (Hons) Commercial Photography at AUB:
- It's a focused, creative course that allows specialism in fashion/beauty, advertising/lifestyle and documentary/editorial/portraiture.
- We have a curriculum and structure designed to allow technical, creative and critical development, as you work towards becoming creative photographers within the industry.
- We have a professional environment, offering resources that support your ambitions and that are comparable with industry standards.
Integrated Foundation Year
On BA (Hons) Commercial Photography, you have the option to take a specialised Integrated Foundation Year, or Year 0.
The Integrated Foundation year allows you to explore and develop your skills and knowledge at an introductory level, gaining a better understanding of what the subject area has to offer before joining the degree.
Placement year
All undergraduate courses at AUB offer an optional placement year, to be taken between your second and third years of study.
If you’re unsure about this optional placement, you don’t need to decide now. Once you’re here and studying with us, the course team will discuss the placement options with you, so when the time comes, you can make a decision that’s right for you.
Exchange and international summer programmes
Students on BA (Hons) Commercial Photography have the chance to broaden their horizons through exciting exchange and international summer programmes. These opportunities allow you to study abroad at one of our brilliant partner institutions, experience different cultures, and enhance your academic journey.
Level 4 (first year)
In your first year, you’ll learn the creative, practical and theoretical skills that you’ll build upon during your degree. We’ll introduce you to a variety of traditional and digital photographic techniques and processes, giving you a strong technical foundation in location and studio lighting, analogue and digital capture, as well as moving image and digital postproduction techniques. This year also covers key historical and theoretical themes through written assignments, used to reinforce learning and development.
Level 5 (second year)
During second year, you’ll continue to develop your creative skills through enhanced ability within moving image, digital skills and promotional awareness, building upon your first-year experience and developing your genre-specific interests, during two practical units.
Your industry understanding will be consolidated during a unit that includes a period of work experience or other interactions with industry, allowing you to gain hands-on experience, working alongside industry professionals, while also building your own professional profile.
Our ‘Critical Analyses’ unit explores some of the themes and approaches used in the exploration of photographic meaning and semiotics, developing research and written communication skills, providing you with the academic ability to better understand your practice in broader socio/ political contexts, while preparing you for the third-year major written assignment.
Between second and third year, you'll also have the option to take a placement year.
Level 6 (third year)
Your third year allows you to build on your platform of skills and knowledge, with an extremely focused approach to your career ambitions, working in genre-specific study groups.
Two major practical units provide the opportunity to create the work that will become your professional portfolio, and the unit ‘Research Paper’ will allow you to engage with a critically informed analysis of a subject-related topic.
Graduating from the course, you’ll have the opportunity to produce an accomplished commercial portfolio and the critical skills with which to enter the creative industries.
If you wish to continue your studies, you'll have the option to progress to postgraduate study with our MA Photography course.
APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN
Now that you've found the perfect course, it's time to apply.
Check out our handy 'how to apply' guide and our portfolio top tips.
OPEN DAYS
Open Days are a great way to get a feel for undergraduate life at AUB. At an Open Day, you'll be able to explore the campus, talk to course teams and discover our industry-standard facilities.
Visit us on:
- 6 December
- 10 January
AUB SHOWCASE
We're proud of our alumni, and rightfully so.
Explore the incredible work of our graduates in our online AUB Showcase.
Browse work by course, student or theme.
Teaching, learning and assessment
The course outcomes will be met by deploying a wide variety of teaching and learning methods including workshop projects, studio projects, lectures, seminars, group critiques, guided reading and tutorials.
Each unit is assessed separately, and the assessment forms part of the unit. Assessment both provides a measure of your achievement, and also gives you regular feedback on how your learning is developing.
The integration of theory and practice is promoted and reinforced through a team-teaching approach. Lectures, seminars and tutorials may be delivered by team members, as appropriate, in the creative environment of the studio.
The methods employed will, wherever possible, induct students in the disciplines required of a creative practitioner in commercial photography along with transferable skills (managing self, professional skills and team working), and value and credit any relevant previous experience. A key method will be the promotion of work-related learning, including work placements, visits to the workshops or studios of relevant practitioners or organisations, guest lectures or workshops led by visiting practitioners and ‘live’ or simulated project briefs. Learning and career planning will be consolidated through the encouragement of skills in personal planning, reflection and development.
Teaching is directed at supporting individual engagement in learning, although there will be opportunities for students to work in teams to enable them to learn the value of peer cooperation. Also, it's anticipated that due to the vocational and professional orientation of the course, and to enable students to benefit from the range of resources and disciplines within the University, opportunities will exist for students to collaborate in teams with peers in, for example, Make-up, Textiles, Fashion or Modelmaking. It is also envisaged that live project work may benefit from the collaboration of students from all levels of the course.
The study time allocated to each unit in the course incorporates a balance of teaching support and learning. The progressive promotion of student-centred learning reflects the anticipated maturity of students and allows them to direct their learning towards individual goals. For example, the teaching in Level 4 is directed at providing students with the knowledge, concepts and skills necessary to take increasing responsibility for the management of their own learning as they progress through to Level 5. Level 6 of the course allows the student to confirm their particular creative concerns and to extend the scope and depth of their enquiry, taking the major responsibility for their study. Teaching support reflects these expectations, as mature learners, through tutorial support that complements the autonomous nature of their study.
Negotiated Learning Agreements are the principle means of defining learning goals and monitoring progress and achievements, providing the opportunity for student to extend their interests and abilities, and demonstrate their capacity for sustained independent and professional work.
Guidance and counselling to help students in realising their learning potential will be provided continuously throughout each academic year.
The methods employed will, whenever possible, lead you, ‘the student’, into the disciplines required of a creative practitioner and promote the transferable skills of self-management and self-reliance.
The course is structured progressively to provide increased opportunities for autonomous learning.
The progressive promotion of student-centred learning reflects your developing maturity, as a student, and supports your individual learning towards your aims and goals.
Contact hours include all scheduled teaching sessions, but also supervised time in the workshop or studio. In line with national guidance, we include in our calculation of contact hours all the time which is scheduled in the studio for independent study which is also supported by staff (either academic staff, or technicians).
The information provided below gives the proportion of your study time which constitutes contact hours. Where there are optional routes through the course, we've used the figures for the most popular option.
For every unit of your course, we'll inform you of what you are expected to learn, what you have to submit, how your work will be assessed, and the deadline for presenting your work for assessment. This is made available through Unit Information, which is on your course blog.
You'll receive a final mark for each unit in the form of a percentage, which will be recorded on your formal record of achievement (transcript). Each component of assessment is graded using a notched marking scale, whereby only certain marks are used within each grade. The only marks available within any ten-point band are *2, *5 and *8 (e.g. 62, 65, 68). These marks correspond to a low, mid, and high level of achievement within each grade band.
All learning outcomes must be passed to successfully complete the unit.
On successful completion of your Honours degree course, you'll be awarded a degree classification based on your unit marks. The final classification is determined using all unit marks at Levels 5 and 6 using two different algorithms, which are detailed in the HE Student Regulations. If the two algorithms produce different results, you will be awarded the higher class of degree.
If you've joined Level 6 through either the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) route or having completed a Foundation Degree (FdA), the final classification is determined using only your unit marks at Level 6.