I am a third year Photography student and the subject is something that I became more enthusiastic about during the end of high school and developed throughout my two years of college. And now it does not feel like it’s been three years since I had my interview and got accepted onto the course in November, time has well and truly flown by!
Now I’m well into doing the course I thought that I would share with you some of the reasons why I love doing Photography at Staffordshire University.
- The residential trips we’ve had the opportunity to go on – in first year we went to Liverpool for a few days to visit some galleries, take part in a couple of workshops and in general take some great pictures around Liverpool. Then in second year a small group of us went to London, where again we visited some interesting galleries, took part in a workshop at a printing place and viewed some photographer studios see what sort of work they do as well as some available for hire that are used by large publications.
- The ability to be creative – obviously as this is a creative arts course that kind of thing is expected but in some university courses you don’t get to do that. Within the first year and the first semester of second year you get given ‘briefs’ of what to do but from there on after you have completely free reign of what to do!
- Learning new skills and software – photography is an interesting course in that you don’t necessarily have to have a degree to actually be a photographer in the industry. But I believe the reason a lot of people choose to study it is because you get to learn new skills and develop pre-existing ones by using equipment and software that you may have never used before. To add to that the technicians in the department are always happy to help you with shooting in the studios, printing and any Photoshop help.
- Getting to exhibit your work – is something that is definitely a great opportunity to be able to do when you’re in university. On our course you even get to do this twice! In second year we have our NOVUS show which is exhibited throughout the year in the Henrion building corridor and then NEXUS in third year which is our official degree show. But for both we aim to have a professional show for people to view. Putting the exhibition on also further enhances our skills as we have to work together as a group to fundraise, create all promotional materials, provide refreshments for guests and prepare the space ready to exhibit.
Obviously every course has it’s stressful or frustrating moments; especially around deadlines! But it’s always nice to have those satisfactory moments when you can proudly exhibit at the end of the year and submit your photographic work that you’ve worked hard on!
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