About Photography And Collaboration MA in Coventry University

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.

Course 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.

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.

Applicants to the MA Photography and Collaboration should typically possess a good honours degree (2:1 or equivalent). If the degree is in an unrelated subject, applicants need to demonstrate relevant industry knowledge and experience in their application statement, as per below. All applicants – home, EU, and overseas – will be required to provide a project proposal (500 words for applicants meeting all admission criteria, 1,500 words for applicants using APL/APEL), as well as a portfolio of examples of practical, professional or academic work. Applicants may be required to provide other supporting material, e.g. full marks/results records. All eligible applicants will be interviewed by videoconferencing (e.g. via Google Hangouts, or Skype).

Candidates without a good honours degree, but with substantial professional/industrial experience, and/or other relevant training and experience may be admitted with lower qualifications.

Those with relevant experience are encouraged to apply for admission with advanced standing through Accreditation of Prior Learning or Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning, where appropriate. Students entering with advanced standing will be advised of the procedure for claiming accreditation of prior experience or learning, and of the regulations governing the amount of credit that can be claimed (see below). Advice will also be given on the extent of the match between their experience/learning and the relevant course outcomes.

You may be required to purchase and use a range of consumables relevant to your practice. In addition, you may require your own server space for web hosting. All other required equipment can be loaned from the Media Loan Shop (MLS) in the Ellen Terry building, if based in the UK. We expect all students with a professional background and ambitions to have access to their own equipment relevant to their chosen specialism.

There is no dictated form for any of the project-based outcomes, and students need to negotiate using diverse materials and equipment, as suitable to the conceptual foundation of each project. It would be conceivable for this to range from disposable cameras and photographic artefacts to professional equipment. This genre has a rich tradition of leveraging available resources, and the course team emphasises the value of this as a skill, to enhance adaptability and resourcefulness, with students being guided to plan practical work that they can complete relying on accessible equipment only. Any coursework production plans relying on external funding or facilities are expected to include contingency plans that meet the Module Learning Outcomes in equal measure.

Students for whom English is not their first language should meet the appropriate English language standards (e.g. IELTS 6.5 of all aspects, or evidence of equivalent standards, both written and verbal/interview).

Portfolio

Non-traditional entry students are also welcome; applicants without formal qualifications, but professional/industrial experience may be admitted; on the basis of interview and submission of supporting material (project proposal and portfolio) within their application.

English as a Foreign Language: This course requires IELTS of 6.5 overall, with no component lower than 5.5. Pre-sessional English is available if required.

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