BA (hons) Degree

I am considering doing a BA (hons) degree in photography on a distance learning basis. in fact i think I am going to sign up for it this week.

I spend virtually all my spare time reading about photography taking pictures or processing on a laptop. I figure this will provide me with a bit more structure and will take me into areas of study that I perhaps would not normally go to.

I wondered if anybody on the forum has had any experience of such a course.

i am quite excited by it - its probably a committment in excess of 5 years and is also quite a financial outlay, although nowhere near the cost of a degree at a university.

At the back of my mind I am hoping that it may open a few doors and perhaps help with a career change although i want to do it anyway regardless.

I figure some kind of accreditation would be good and that a degree is widely recognised. I also think i would greatly enjoy the experience.

Hi there,

I done a degree in "computing with photography" how interesting.. ha ha. Yes it only suppossed to be computing but I changed to modules to photography since I found out I was more interested into phoography than computing during my 2nd year.

Right now I work as a photographer, mainly makeover or model profolio. I say most of the time I enjoy doing my job but I can tell you that doing a degree is nothing to do with what you do at work.

In fact I started working in the industry as a retoucher first and things are so different in term of workflow, the quilty of work people except you and so on. In fact in this industry no one cares if you have a degree or not. What the market wants is you be able to deliver acceptable result in short notice and with minium cost. Nothing I leart from university been applied in my work now. It is all about experience, people skill and how you market yourself. You will be better off spending your money on marketing course. Marketing is the most important part in your photography career.

However I really enjoyed my time in uni doing the photography course, I had the chance to use the dark room to do my own printing, use medium and larger format cameras as well as using high end studio lights. But that was a course that I went in a university so I am not sure if you would enjoy the same experience as I did on the course you are going to aplly for.

Might I ask what kind of photography are you interested to get into? When I was in university everyone wanted to be a fashion photographer for some reason, but I wanted to be a documantary photographer. Earning you living doing somehing you love to do is diffcult and I do not earn my living doing documantary photography and moost of my coursemates are not doing fashion photography to earn their living. Most photographer will end up doing family protrait, pet and baby photography.

I suggest you to keep your money in your own pocket and invest them in things such as marketing yourself when needed. You do not learn to be a photographer by going to a course, you learn it with experience when you work.

Finally to answer your final question, seems like the only recogniseble photography course in the industry is in LCF (London College of Fashion).
http://www.fashion.arts.ac.uk/courses/honours-degrees/ba-fashion-photography/

Good luck

I can totally relate to the comments above.

Having a photography qualification on my cv helped me get my first photography job I didn't really learn much about photography, I learnt a lot about art.

I am now doing a business degree specializing in marketing exactly for the reasons m42geo posted above.

I would recommend doing an A level photography course first. only costs £100 to £200ish per year compared to the cost of a degree & also only takes up 1 or 2 nights a week so no way near as much commitment.

Yes if it is only £200 then of course there is no harm doing. And I guess you can still get access the dark room with an A level course which is the best part of photography course I found.

After reading your post i wanted to give my two pence worth. You mention career change, is this in relation to photography? A degree will not open any more doors in photography in my opinion. However, if your career aim is photography you could explore The Master Photographers Association http://www.thempa.com/

A degree is a great area for learning & personal development, but if your main focus is just photography i just think you could spend your time and money more wisely.

This may not answer your question, but i hope it provides you with some food for thought.

Whatever you choose to do, i wish you every success.

I'm interested to know where does distance degrees?

By the way. The A level I did was an Art qualification. The technical aspects are left more or less up to you. You could pass not knowing much about cameras but knowing lots about art. This seems the opposite from most photographers who seem more interested in cameras than the artistic aspects of photography.

Two years part time. You get a licencateship from the RPS if you have an A level.

Gary knows his onions but if you can demonstrate a good knowledge of photography and get on the degree I'd do the degree. Check if they stagger the degree like, certificate, diploma, degree based on the credits you study.

Hi
My career is in Further & Higher Education, and I have written a number of currently accredited courses up to BA(Hons) in the creative digital media area (which includes Photography), so have a bit of experience with questions like yours. One thing I always talk to prospective students about in the guidance stage is about what they expect a course to provide. At degree level you will be set some challenging work for sure on every course, but they are not all alike, some offer a more technical route into careers such as forensics and sciences, others are more arts based, so choose carefully. Work out where your career goals lie, and have that in mind when you ask questions before you enrol. A degree, especially now the fees have gone up, is an expensive undertaking, and once you sign up, you pay the fees for that year whether you stick with it or not. Its worth remembering that.

Check out who your tutors are, that will give you an idea as to the emphasis the course might have. If you can, see if you can talk to any of the current students. There is a wealth of information on the web written by students on degree courses. A good starting place to check out what other students think about your choice of institution is HEFCE, under the National Student Survey link.

A degree is really rewarding. I did one back in 1989, after years of working as a Photographers Assistant. The course I chose taught very little technical stuff at all, and concentrated on creative image making and understanding images. It was right for me at that time.

Photography as a subject is growing in popularity. In my college we have already had around 60 applications for full time photography courses starting in September 2012. This number will climb to several hundred between now and March. With the kind of growth in the market, it will become a very competitive career choice. With that in mind think about a niche product you could offer, and try to match it to a service you can provide. A friend of mine has made a name for himself in sports photography, because he concentrates on sports he knows the most about, Cycling & Decathlon events. He knows everyone in that sports area, and his work always gets sold and published. Another close friend does specialised wildlife photography, and has become an expert in tracking and photographing very elusive species. He works full time for various conservation agencies because he has a proven track record, and they know he will get the shots.

I wish you loads of luck on this undertaking, I'm sure you will find it really rewarding

Firstly can I thank all of those who have commented. You have all left quite long posts, i really appreciate the time and effort.

I did sort of realise that being a photographer and taking a photography degree are very different- having read through the course modules it is clear that a large part of the course is "art" based. For me this is enticing, and studying this in relation to photography is appealing in itself.

The career change is something very much in the back of my mind at this stage. The job I do now I dont find very rewarding and not particularly enjoyable so i am always looking to break away from it.
However I believe I will really enjoy the degree regardless of vocational potential.

I can do sales (my current job) but hanker after something with a more creative element.

In terms of the type of photography I would like to pursue- really I would struggle to answer that right now. Maybe I am being unwise proceeding but I just would like to be bold and get stuck in to something with real substance.

Following the advice here I may re-think my plans, the A level sounds interesting- not something I considered- kind of felt like going the whole hog.

Doug- here is the link if you are interested.

link