Photography A Level

Before submitting your application to Wyke Sixth Form College, please ensure that you have added

1. Personal Details (including Home Address, Email Address and Contact Number)
2. A full list of all of your predicted grades

Without this information we will be unable to process your application and will refer this back to you until it is fully complete.

Photography at Wyke is a great A Level choice if you have a keen interest in photography and lens based media. A wide range of facilities exist that will allow an in depth exploration of processes and techniques. The course requires dedication and a commitment to work independently. Ownership of a digital SLR camera is beneficial but not essential.

Photography is often studied alongside courses such as Media studies and Graphic design, but can also serve as a complementary study route, offering an element of variety to an intense academic programme. An interest in photography is absolutely essential and prior creative study is considered an advantage.

Wyke Photography department has a well-equipped purposed built studio with Bowen’s flash equipment and a computer suite that uses the latest digital software. A darkroom and film processing facilities also exist and the combination of traditional and digital techniques is viewed as central to the course. The course is delivered as three distinct units of study, which test the skills of observation, media handling, ideas development, contextual research and visual realisation. Quality of written expression is especially important in the second year of study.

COURSE DETAILS – YEAR 1

A first body of coursework is internally set and marked and is concerned with the building of photographic skills and the construction of a portfolio of studio and location based images that shows a wide variety of techniques, methods, outcomes and subject matter. Darkroom photography is still explored and is integrated with the use of digital imaging platforms.

COURSE DETAILS – YEAR 2

7206C

A personal investigation is undertaken in the first period of second year study; the theme for this work is agreed via negotiation between the individual student and the course team.

This component of the course also requires the undertaking of an illustrated essay related in theme to the nature of the personal investigation.

7206X

An externally set exam paper is released in February offering a choice of themes for independently researched visual development and contextual work. The culmination of this body of work is a fifteen-hour exam undertaken in April in which a summative piece of visual work relating to the exam question is undertaken.

Throughout the course, you will be encouraged to produce practical and critical/contextual work in one or more areas including; portraiture, landscape photography, still-life photography, documentary photography, photo-journalism, experimental imagery, photographic installation, video, television and film. In the second year of study you will be encouraged to develop your own starting points with an emphasis on individual outcomes.

60% coursework 40% examination

Information on course specific and pathway specific entry criteria can be found on our website.

The knowledge and skills gained through the study of this course can lead to further and higher level courses concerned with Fine Art or commercial based media. The study of photography may lead to a career in freelance, commercial, industrial, fine art or landscape photography or could be invaluable to a career in graphic design, journalism, film, media and digital applications.