Why study BA (Hons) Photography transcript

00:00

Photography is a creative subject and therefore allows students to experiment and develop their own individual voice as image makers. Photographs are everywhere, so to have a range of advanced technical skills when making photographs as well as a sophisticated understanding of the history and the wider context of the medium, is a huge advantage. Our teaching is designed very much with our students needs in mind and is unique to our course. In first year we teach our modules in six week blogs to make the transition from previous education, into higher education as smooth as possible. We teach both theory and practice and most of the time integrated, in order to make our teaching interactive and varied. This also ensures our students graduate with a wide set of skills that prepare them very well for a future career.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Photography, Nina Sverdick is stood in the Spark building at Solent University talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways to student photography work including a women looking longingly out of a car window, video of students working in the photography studio with a camera and model, and an academic reviewing their images on a computer, and also photos of students working in a classroom.

1:06:18

The best thing about the lectures on my course are like, they understand you so well and they just always try and help you so much, you can just email them any day and they can reply so quickly and help you out with whatever.

Student of BA (Hons) Photography, Anushka Tandon is stood in the Spark building at Solent University talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways to student photography work of a building.

1:20:23

So the best thing the lectures in my course, is because they come from like an industry background, so when they're talking you trust that the advice they're giving is from a professional background. A wide range of different things so like, portraiture, architecture, so you feel the advice you're getting is from people who really know what they're talking about.

Student of BA (Hons) Photography James Tudge is stood in the Spark building at Solent University talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways to student photography work including a model, an underground station, and a wooded area.

1:38:10

Our students create and publish their own photography magazine Pentaprism, featuring a selection of photographs by our students. This has been a direct pathway into a future career for some of our students.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Photography, Nina Sverdick is stood in the Spark building at Solent University talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways to the student produced photography magazine, 'Pentaprism', and students photography work.

1:52:02

So I visited lots of universities before I went here and suddenly it stood out for me straight away due to facilities, the general feel I got from the lecturers and I've not regretted that decision at all. So I've loved every second being here. I think like, the lecturers are always engaging, interesting, everyone I've met has been so nice and I can set up facilities, you have everything you need, so yeah I feel like it's the right choice coming here, I definitely recommend it to everyone else.

Student of BA (Hons) Photography James Tudge is stood in the Spark building at Solent University talking to camera.

2:16:06

We have the most amazing facilities here on the photography course at Solent, which means that we can teach every aspect of photography and this allows our students to be creative, have fun and most importantly it motivates them to work really hard. We teach analogue black and white and colour film processing and darkroom printing, we also have every analogue camera format available for students to use, we have a large area of purpose-built photo studios with lighting kits, as well as a huge range of high-end digital SLR's. The use of this equipment is taught throughout three years of study, enabling students to develop very advanced technical skills. We also have Mac labs with digital film scanners and facilities for printing very large photographic prints, all free to use for our students.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Photography, Nina Sverdick is stood in the Spark building at Solent University talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways of images of students working in the Solent University photography labs using dark rooms and film processing machines and printers, as well as showing the media hatch and students taking media equipment to use.

3:16:10

We have everything we need, like studios, darkrooms, there's so much, the hatch is amazing, you can book out whatever equipment you need.

Student of BA (Hons) Photography, Anushka Tandon is stood in the Spark building at Solent University talking to camera.

3:22:02

At Solent we have the only in-house creative agency in the country called Solent Creatives. Students can sign up for this and they will be notified every time a photography job comes up. We also offer paid campus jobs including supervising our facilities. We are also right in the centre of Southampton and have amazing institutions such as the John Hansard gallery and Southampton City Art Gallery on our doorstep.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Photography, Nina Sverdick is stood in the Spark building at Solent University talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways to students working in Solent Creatives, as well as showing the local galleries and artwork.

3:51:09

As third year's have a professional practice unit and this helps us put our portfolio together and I put our CV's together. We also receive lectures on like, different careers that we could take within the photography industry and we also get to collaborate with other students, so we get to work on like, a variety of different projects as well.

Student of BA (Hons) Photography, Angharad Morgan is stood in a photography classroom with photography images in the background.

4:14:03

The most important skill I've learned is probably trusting your own instinct in amongst the things you've learned as well because it's very much building your own style of photography and I think most people would come into the course with maybe a theme they prefer and then if that's your theme you prefer shooting, I think to trust that and to build upon that and I feel like through going to the lectures it helps you build up your own self trust, I think that's probably the most important thing I've learned.

Student of BA (Hons) Photography James Tudge is stood in the Spark building at Solent University talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways to to student photography work including a large abstract building, models dressed as characters on a beach, a plant in a room in shadow and an aerial view of a car park at night,

4:39:23

Finally we have the most dedicated team of tutors and professionals that contribute an incredibly wide range of knowledge and experience within the field of photography and visual arts. Thinking and making creatively, acquiring knowledge and the enjoyment of teaching and learning is at the heart of everything that we do.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Photography, Nina Sverdick is stood in the Spark building at Solent University talking to camera.

5:02:13

Upbeat music plays, then fades out. Cuts to graphic that says, 'Get ready for university', www.solent.ac.uk, fades down, and fades up Solent University logo. [Video ends]