Photography MA

Sheffield Hallam University

Please check the Sheffield Hallam University website for the latest information.

Course summary

• Advance your skills in modern photography
• Experiment with industry-standard equipment
• Take on an individual project that combines creative exploration with critical research
• Kick-start your career as a professional photographer with help from a dedicated employability adviser

On this course, you’ll become a highly knowledgeable, independent photographer ready to excel in your field. You’ll gain the skills you need to fulfil your potential as a practitioner, working in state of the art facilities. The course features a flexible, adaptable curriculum, and has close links to creative networks and organisations in Northern England.

How you learn

All our courses are designed around a set of key principles based on engaging you with the world, collaborating with others, challenging you to think in new ways, and providing you with a supportive environment in which you can thrive.

This course is based around a creative, practice-based and self-directed approach to learning. This is similar to the independent nature of professional practice, and will prepare you for the real world of photography.

Throughout your studies, you’ll be encouraged to undertake research and further your understanding of historical and contemporary approaches. You’ll also look at relevant theoretical issues to help place your work in a critical context.

You learn through

• specialist workshops
• technical surgeries
• lectures and seminars
• group critiques and review sessions
• individual tutorials
• exhibition and curation
• field trips and study visits
• visiting professionals and guest lecturers

Applied learning Work placements

During the course students undertake a period of work experience of a minimum of two weeks duration or equivalent. This is identified and arranged by the student, with the support of tutors and wider university staff, as well as the university career and work-experience teams. This provides knowledge and understanding of a real world employment within the professional sphere of communication or media.

The course benefits from established relationships with a number of photographic partners including the Photographers' Gallery, Site Gallery, Millennium Galleries, The Hepworth Wakefield, Village Bookshop and Gallery, Impressions Gallery and Format Festival.

Field trips and events

You will have the opportunity to attend national and international photography and art events — such as exhibitions, festivals and conferences — to deepen your understanding of the wider photographic industry. In recent years we have been to Paris Photo, Berlin Photography Festival, Amsterdam and put on residential field trips to London and the Peak District.

Networking opportunities

Our staff are founding members and active in a number of research groups, including Northern Light, Walking Arts, Visual Activism, and The Centre for Contemporary Legend research groups

We organise exhibitions, conferences, symposia and events. These include our biennial conference and exhibition on contemporary landscape and environmental photography under the title Northern Light. We also host an annual RPS History Group symposium

Each year we also host a number of industry days and events — such as Grad Talk and Pathways.. You’ll have access to guidance from our professional careers and employment service, CV preparation and interview practice, an annual programme of employer recruitment fairs, and an online graduate vacancy service

We also work closely with REDEYE — an organisation supporting professional photographers in the north of England and with APHE