A fine art photography course that produces award-winning graduates.

This Master's degree is one of the UK's leading postgraduate awards in photography. Positioned on the cusp of the rapidly developing overlap between photography, art and new media, the course explores the expanding definitions of photography, with a focus is on fine art photography. It is aimed at photographers who want to develop a major body of work and develop a critical understanding of contemporary photography and visual culture.

You will have the opportunity to develop aesthetic, technical, conceptual and professional skills, underpinned by research and a critical understanding of contemporary photographic practice. You will learn how to present a portfolio and develop proposals for grant, exhibition or commission applications. The culmination is the production of a major photographic project.

The course is part of a lively photography department with a strong research culture. It draws on an experienced team of tutors including established practitioners from documentary photography, art, editorial and theoretical backgrounds. The course has close links with the Photography and the Archive Research Centre situated at LCC (containing the archives of the late film director Stanley Kubrick) and directed by Professor Val Williams.

The College has an impressive range of facilities including colour and black-and-white darkrooms, photographic studios and digital facilities. Located close to central London there are excellent links with galleries, museums, archives and researchers.

Our graduates have an impressive track record in competitions and awards. Penny Klepuszewska won the Nikon Endframe Awards (2006) and Ania Dabrowksa won the Observer Hodge Award (2003). In the Jerwood Photography Awards (2007) two of the five winners were MA Photography graduates, along with three winners from the LCC Photojournalism and Documentary Photography course, making it a clean sweep.

This course is taught within the Faculty of Media

Who teaches the course?

There is an extensive programme of visiting speakers. These include leading curators, artists, gallerists and critics such as Susan Bright, David Chandler, Annika Eriksson, Anna Fox, Nigel Rolfe, Clare Grafik, David Campany, Olivier Richon, Anne Hardy, Zineb Sedira, Ori Gersht, Mark Haworth-Booth, Suky Best, Helen Sears, Jaime Stapleton, Rafal Niemojewski, Sarah Jones, Nigel Shafran, David Spero and Val Williams. There are also links with leading picture editors and agencies such as Millennium Images.

MA Photography 2008 exhibition website

The Sproxton Award

The Sproxton Prize is awarded each year to the best student in the MAP Final Show, as decided upon by a panel of outside judges.  Each winner receives a cheque for £1000 and the money is intended to help them kickstart their career in photography. 

The prize was set up in the memory of Andrew Sproxton, who founded Impressions Gallery in York in 1972 together with Professor Val Williams, curator, historian and writer, and now Director of the Photography and the Archive Research Centre here at LCC. Impressions was one of the first specialist photography galleries set up in the UK and indeed Europe and played a crucial role in the acceptance of photography as a serious art form. It is now based in Bradford close to the National Museum of Media. 

The prize fund was established by David Sproxton, brother of Andrew Sproxton.  David Sproxton is one of the founders of Aardman Animation, specialists in model animation and producers of Wallace and Gromit and of numerous other animated films including Chicken Run and the animated television shorts Creature Comforts. 

Judges of the prize have included curator, historian and writer Mark Haworth Booth, photographers and alumni Bettina von Zwehl and Poppy de Villeneuve, Millennium agency director Jason Shenai, and photographic book publisher Chris Boot. 

Winners of the prize so far have included:
2003:    Betsie van der Meer
2004:    Claire Waffel
2005:    Matthew Andrew
2006:    Penny Klepuszewska
2007:    Hee Seung Chung
2008:    Krzysztof Szmigielski

The course is structured into three phases.

Phase 1

Exploration and research for the 'body of work'.  Critical context seminars will help you develop a critical framework for your body of work. 

Phase 2

In this phase you will select and develop one of the ideas for the body of work. You will also work towards the production of the critical context paper and will make a presentation of your practice and research at a symposium composed of MA Photography and other postgraduate and research students.  There is also an opportunity to attend electives chosen from the postgraduate programme.

Phase 3

In phase 3 you will complete the body of work and produce it for an exhibition and whatever  final outcomes you decide upon.  You will be expected to work as part of a team in the planning of the exhibition.  Throughout phase 2 and 3 you will also have the opportunity to attend professional development seminars.

Alumni have pursued a variety of career paths including exhibiting internationally as fine artists, undertaking editorial and fashion commissions, independent publishing, picture editing, art buying, curatorial work and further academic research at PhD level. Alumni have won awards such as the Jerwood, Observer Hodge and Nikon Endframe Awards. Ex-students have also been included in leading photography collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, and exhibited their work at galleries such as Yossi Milo Gallery (New York), Impressions Gallery (York) and Tate Britain.

Graduates are well represented in competitions, awards, exhibitions and commissions. Some recent successes include those listed below.

• Jerwood Photography Awards 2007: Moira Lovell, Kevin Newark of MA Photography 06 (LCC photography students also won the other three awards in 2007 making it a clean sweep)
• Pavilion Commissions 2007/8: Millie Burton, Lydia Goldblatt, Kevin Newark, Moira Lovell of MA Photography 06, Peter Ainsworth of MA Photography 07
• Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed, Photographers Gallery 2008: Jesus Jiminez, Sam Holden of MA Photography 07, Steve Schofield, Zoltan Varga of MA Photography 08 (along with two other LCC Photography students)
• Anticipation 2008, curated by Kay Saatchi: Rita Soromenho of MA Photography 07
• New Contemporaries 2008: Sam Holden of MA Photography 07
• New Contemporaries 2007: Penny Klepuszewska of MA Photography 06
• Pilsner Urquell UK Deeper Perspective Winner 2007: Penny Klepuszewska of MA Photography 06

Read more about our alumni in Course information / FAQs (PDF - 585KB)

The course has an active relationship with the art and photography worlds, and curators and critics regularly take part in tutorials, crits and workshops. In addition there are links with photographers' agents, photographic agencies and art buyers in areas of the commercial sector which are interested in fine art photography. UAL houses a number of organizations which promote aspects of career development in the arts and media and which regularly hold workshops. These include:

• Creative Careers
• ECCA (The Enterprise Centre for the Arts)
• Own-It (intellectual property issues}
• ArtQuest (career development resource for artists and designers)

You should normally hold a first degree or equivalent in photography or other media-related subject. Applications are also welcomed if you have significant professional experience but no formal undergraduate qualifications. In the first instance, you should submit an application form, together with an initial proposal for the project or body of work you wish to develop on the course, and 10-12 examples of visual work. You may then be invited to attend an interview at which they will be asked to discuss their project proposal and to show their portfolio or other evidence of visual work.

We are looking for applicants who already have a strong body of practice and a distinctive approach to photography with a conceptual and fine art orientation even if you also work or wish to work commercially. Most applicants will have a degree in photography but some come from other backgrounds such as other areas of art and design, or even another field entirely, and some will come from professional practice. However you must have reached a level of research based practice commensurate with a good first degree in photography. NB: We only recommend the full time mode for those who have previously studied photography to degree level and/or who already have a strong and established fine art photography practice.

The two year part-time mode allows more time for experimentation and reflection. We ask for ten to twelve images and a project proposal with the application form and we can generally see from this whether you are ready for an MA yet. For those who have not studied photography to degree level, we recommend that you look at the following books before applying to the course as they give a general idea of critical approaches to photography and of the general territory of the course:

• L. Wells, Photography: A Critical Introduction. Routledge, 2005.
• C. Cotton The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Thames & Hudson, 2004

Portfolio advice

We are interested in how you approach a project, so the images sent with the application should mainly be from one project or body of work rather than unrelated images. They and your portfolio should reveal a strong body of practice demonstrating a distinctive approach to photography with a conceptual/fine art orientation even if you also work or wish to work commercially or in any other areas of photography practice.

Applications must consist of the formal application form plus the following:
a) A proposal for a photographic project (500 words max).
b) Eight to twelve examples of visual work in the form of prints no bigger than A4 or 8x10 inches - please do not send a large or heavy portfolio or box. If sent on CD, files only need to be screen resolution - please do not send large high resolution files.

As this is to aid us in assessing your ability and suitability for the course, we are unable to advise you on proposal/portfolio content.
NB: Visual work cannot be returned due to numbers so please send copies, not originals. Please do not send your application in an elaborate folder. We regret that we cannot view portfolios outside of the application process. There are open days most terms at which you can visit the College, meet the staff and see the facilities.

International and EU students: If your first language is not English you should check you have achieved the correct IELTS level in English.