Overview
Our Photography and Collaboration MA focuses explicitly on socially-engaged, participatory, and collaborative photographic practices.
In recent years, collaborative photographic practices have taken centre stage within the arts and other forms of cultural production and research. As contemporary photographers are increasingly using collaborative methodologies – inviting individuals and communities to share in the making of photographic works – this course offers a unique opportunity to explore lens-based forms of socially-engaged practice with internationally regarded artists and a consortium of industry partners across the UK and around the world.
Open to students from a range of backgrounds and professional disciplines, this course has been designed for photographic practitioners, but it is also appropriate for people wanting to work with photography, community, and collaboration in other ways, such as activists, community organisers, social workers, educators, cultural institution and gallery-based engagement, and education programme managers.
Through an immersive blend of independent research, critical analysis, intensive practical delivery, and self-directed experiential learning, the MA Photography and Collaboration provides a unique opportunity to explore practical, ethical and representational issues involved in working within the dynamic field of collaborative photographic practices.
Why Coventry University?
An award-winning university, we are committed to providing our students with the best possible experience. We continue to invest in both our facilities and our innovative approach to education. Our students benefit from industry-relevant teaching, and resources and support designed to help them succeed. These range from our modern library and computing facilities to dedicated careers advice and our impressive Students’ Union activities.
Global ready
An international outlook, with global opportunitiesEmployability
Career-ready graduates, with the skills to succeedStudent experience
All the support you need, in a top student cityCourse information
Throughout your studies, we will endeavour to support you in identifying, initiating and developing work made in community or collaborative contexts.
You will be mentored and supported by accomplished practitioners from diverse disciplinary areas, but will also play an active role in shaping your curriculum, with opportunities for field trips, artist talks, studio visits and multi-location learning, as well as local and international partnerships, embedded within the course. On successful completion of the course, you will have produced bodies of work, participated in public exhibitions and other events, and created written texts that contextualise your own practice within the field.
The course structure incorporates modules which are grouped into three primary areas: conceptual foundations, methodological experimentation, and professional enhancement. This conceptual underpinning prepares you to reflect critically on practices and frameworks relevant to your own work, while you develop your own collaborative projects through intensive, immersive laboratories, and the completion of major projects. The professional modules can prepare you to be innovative, research-informed practitioners able to succeed in your chosen fields of employment.
A range of disciplines, genres and contexts will be examined throughout the course, including socially engaged art, cultural activism, public art, visual anthropology, collectives, progressive education, performance and community photography. Connected learning through social media and online platforms, videoconferencing, and other web-based communication technologies allows the course to activate global networks of diverse and multidisciplinary industry experts. The scope and duration of the course supports this aim, as well as facilitating a long-term approach to working with community, or in partnerships, which is a vital aspect of a successful socially engaged practice.
You will be encouraged to develop projects that deepen your interests and ideas, and can play an active role in the shaping of the curriculum as embedded within the easily personalised course structure are opportunities for field trips, artist talks, studio visits and multi-location learning, as well as local and international partnership. This, in combination with highly flexible assessment forms, allows a significant capacity for self-directing the shape of your own educational outcomes.
On successful completion of the course, you should have produced bodies of work through partnerships, had the opportunity to participated in public presentations of work, and created written texts that contextualise your own practice within this field. Through the development and implementation of individual projects, you will have had the opportunity to galvanize an innovative, research-informed and ethically responsive practice that will leverage your employability in your chosen community of practice.
Modules
We regularly review our course content, to make it relevant and current for the benefit of our students. For these reasons, course modules may be updated.
In more detail...
The MA Photography and Collaboration is a two-year, part time course, offered with flexible residency options in tandem with blended learning delivery, and a series of partnerships with national and international industry leaders.
The flexible and open nature of the course delivery and curriculum design means the course can be completed entirely online, or on campus, or a mixture of both, depending on your circumstances. This makes the course relevant for mature students; recent graduates with a coherent project, career ambition or business plan; career changers; freelance self-employed artists; people with diverse abilities; individuals with care commitments; and early to mid-career creative professionals who wish to future proof their skills and experience through formal qualifications.
You will be taught by internationally recognised artists, curators, writers, editors, cultural producers, and photographers, whose work is regularly seen in galleries, festivals, publications and cultural spaces including the British Museum, London Underground’s Art on the Underground, National Portrait Gallery London, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, London Art Fair, Belfast Exposed Photography, Australian Centre for Photography, PhotoIreland, Goa International Photography Festival, Malmö Fotobiennal, Brighton Photo Fringe, Les Rencontres D’Arles Photographie, Source, Photoworks, Photographies, Photomonitor, Open Engagement, Aperture, and the Magnum Foundation.
The MA Photography and Collaboration is a two-year, part-time course offered with flexible residency options in tandem with a series of partnerships with national and international industry leaders.
The delivery of teaching and learning activities on the course is designed to be flexible, through both classroom and online attendance as per the needs of individual students. Through hangouts, social media platforms, and webcam video conferencing technologies, you will have the option to participate in whichever way you are able, dependent on your geographical location, life circumstances and what works best for the development of your practice at that particular time. This versatile curriculum design means the course can be completed entirely online, onsite, or a mix of both.
On-site students (whether located locally, or visiting) also have opportunities to access and use equipment, studios, darkrooms and other resources. They are also able to access induction workshops provided by the School of Media and Performing Arts, as well as technical support, including specialist photographic workshops in areas such as photo-based software, book making, lighting, digital printing and black and white darkroom.
This course will be assessed using a variety of methods which will could vary depending upon the module. Assessment methods include presentations and portfolios of practical work, research papers, essays and critical writing.
The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards the achieving the intended learning outcomes. Assessments may include exams, individual assignments or group work elements.
Teaching contact hours on this course take into consideration that much student guidance is tailored, individual, research-led, and time-intensive, and to accommodate the emphasis on field work, studio visits, and self-guided work. Some of the modules are delivered in intensive blocks, with individual tutorials to support practical and written submissions. Other modules are designed to facilitate collaborative learning amongst the student cohort and with industry partners.
You should have opportunities to come into contact with a variety of international guest artists and speakers across all modules on the course. Additionally, international field trips to participate in key industry events regularly take place, and we regularly work with a consortium of national and international industry partners to host workshops, talks and other professional activities for you to take part in to help you develop your practice.
Global ready
Did you know we help more students travel internationally than any other UK university according to data from the experts in higher education data and analysis, HESA?
In 2016/17, we were able to provide a total of 3,482 student experiences abroad that lasted at least five.
Much of this travel is made possible through our Global Leaders Programme, which enables students to prepare for the challenges of the global employment market, as well as strengthening and developing their broader personal and professional skills.
Explore our international experiences1st for
international experiences
Sending more students overseas than any other UK uni (HESA 2016/17)
3,482
Student experiences
The number of student trips abroad for at least 5 days in 2016/17
21,000
and counting
The number of students we’ve helped travel internationally so far
12
global programmes
As well as trips, we offer other opportunities like language courses
Entry Requirements
Tuition Fees
We pride ourselves on offering competitive tuition fees which we review on an annual basis and offer a wide range of scholarships to support students with their studies. Course fees are calculated on the basis of what it costs to teach each course and we aim for total financial transparency.
Career prospects
Regardless of your specific intentions, circumstances, or background, the MA Photography and Collaboration aims to allow students to define and work towards attainment of your goals, enhance employability, widen global community of practice, and gain a qualification that supports obtainment of successful career ambitions.
The course structure incorporates modules which are grouped into three primary areas: conceptual foundations, methodological experimentation, and professional enhancement. This conceptual underpinning prepares you to reflect critically on practices and frameworks relevant to your work while you develop collaborative projects through intensive, immersive laboratories, and the completion of major projects. The professional modules help prepare you to be innovative research-informed practitioners able to succeed in your chosen field of employment.
Disclaimer
By accepting your offer of a place and enrolling with us, a Student Contract will be formed between you and the University. A copy of the 19/20 Contract can be found here. The Contract details your rights and the obligations you will be bound by during your time as a student and contains the obligations that the University will owe to you. You should read the Contract before you accept an offer of a place and before you enrol at the University.
The tuition fee for the course that is stated on the webpage and in the prospectus will apply. If the duration of the course is longer than one academic year, the University may increase the fee for each subsequent year of study but any such increases will be no more than inflation.
