Photography/Creative Writing BA (Hons)

Aberystwyth University

Photography and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University will enable you to cultivate your imagination, inventiveness and creativity, while broadening your visual and verbal language. This inter-disciplinary degree will allow you to explore and experiment with genre, form, language, media, style, and presentation. You will develop skills related to image capture and reproduction in analogue and digital media, while acquiring the knowledge required for the successful writing of non-fiction, prose and poetry. On completion of this degree, you will graduate with a portfolio of exceptional creative material, and the skills and attributes to flourish in your chosen career.

Why study Photography and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University?

You will explore the connections between creative and critical thinking and develop a deep understanding of the relationship between professional practice and imaginative thought. You will learn from experienced staff, many of whom are published authors and internationally renowned photographers and curators. You will be immersed in a supportive and vibrant community of creative and critical thinkers and practitioners. You will benefit from access to the National Library of Wales (one of the UK’s five copyright libraries), which is adjacent to Penglais campus, and which holds a copy of all works published in the UK and the largest collections of portraits, maps and photographic images in Wales..

You will have the opportunity to examine rare and original photographic prints from the collections of the National Library of Wales and the School of Art Museum.

The School of Art at Aberystwyth University has been awarded Accredited Museum Status by Arts Council England. This demonstrates that its collection care and management are at the highest standard.

In your final year you will have the chance to take part in a writing retreat at a country house in Mid Wales - an amazing opportunity to spend time with fellow students and staff, developing your projects and dissertations in a splendid rural setting.

What will I learn?

In the first year you will learn how to apply narrative techniques and hone your creative writing practice. You will have the opportunity to study a range of historic and contemporary literature and analyse poetic techniques and form. You will also explore the language of photography and gain essential practical skills through the consideration of themes such as identity, environment, tradition and sense of place.

In the second year you will extend your critical and technical awareness of non-fiction and develop your creative writing skills further, whilst immersing yourself in the literary fields which excite you the most. You will consider the debates surrounding contemporary photographic practice and acquire the critical apparatus to evaluate photographic imagery as an art form, while furthering your self-directed photographic practice.

In the third year, you will continue your exploration of diverse writing practices, while developing your understanding of different modes of literary discourse. You will have the opportunity to participate in a writing retreat in the heart of Wales. In addition, you will further refine your own photographic practice in preparation for an exhibition of your work in the Graduation Show.

Studying Photography and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University will allow you to develop your specialist technical knowledge and flair for language and composition, while enriching your creative and cultural understanding of the world around you. The skills you acquire will afford you many career opportunities, including: Copywriter, Editor, Lexicographer, Scriptwriter, Arts administrator, Creative director, Concept artist, Magazine journalist, Newspaper journalist, Press photographer, Magazine features editor, Media Planner, Film/video editor, Graphic designer and Web designer.