A level Art & Design (Photography) Course
What Board do we do? AQA
What is Photography?
Photography jobs are as vast as the medium is visible in the world. This course will make you a great creative thinker, able to construct your photographic images so they contain high visual appeal and visual communication. In this way you will be able to carve out your desired career in photography. The course is directed by AQA with assessment criteria making this course as much about project management as it is about photography, giving you the skills and academic requirement to enable you to build projects of your own. This will mean that you will be able to apply this knowledge to any other subject or profession where project management features.
Photography is an exciting medium that can be used in many different ways. Careers in photography include: art careers, advertising, commercial work, editorial, fashion, film, food, forensic, industrial, architectural, aerial, portraiture and wedding photography, sports and travel and more. Photographs are visible everywhere because we love the photographic representation of our world and ourselves and therefore there is a huge market for photographic work. Magazines and newspapers show advertising and editorial photographic work. Billboards and hoardings show mainly fashion and advertising photography. In the film industry, the ‘Director of Photography’ may operate lighting or camera and they have control over the aesthetic or ‘look of the film’. Photographers are employed to take ‘Stills’ in films and also photographic documentation for ‘Continuity’. Artists use photography in vast ways to show conceptual thinking, and these photographs are found in galleries, books, magazines and on the internet. Photographs can be used on the web or as beautiful printed objects.
GCSE and A Level Photography will teach you to look at the world in a creative way. The creative potential stimulated in this course will enable you to apply creative, analytical and critical thinking and problem solving, in order to visually communicate ideas through photography. This awareness can also be employed to any other course that you do. Students will develop critical analyses of artists’ work; helping to develop their own ideas through reaction, practical application and written reflections. Throughout these courses, students will learn about a variety of photographic media, techniques and processes including hands-on experimentation with traditional techniques in our dedicated darkrooms, lighting in our studio and computers for Photoshop and digital media, utilising these techniques and equipment; to achieve visual communication through photography.
AQA assesses coursework, which is completed during the entire course and marked before 31st May each year, resulting in a final grade. Component 1 is worth 60% of both GCSE and A Level and Component 2 is worth 40% of both GCSE and A Level. Students will use sketchpads and workbooks to demonstrate project-management through practical learning, ideas-development and critical analysis. Coursework takes the pressure away from traditional timed exams. There is a timed exam for final production of Component 2 (this only contains a small proportion of the marks and is assessed with the entire coursework).
Photography develops a wide range of skills, analytical and critical thinking and problem-solving, which will be useful at university and in future careers. Photography can offer a highly creative and hands-on alternative to other subjects you may be studying at A Level. Tuition is enjoyable, structured, friendly and supportive, resulting in high grade achievements on this course.
Which subjects combine well with Photography?
English, Business Studies, Psychology, Sociology and Drama. Photography is a subject that draws from and comments on a variety of aspects of life. Dependent on your particular interest you may wish to combine other A Levels to develop a more specific career. For example Photography and Drama would provide skills that would be valuable in the film industry or commercial photography and also photography used for exhibition. Photography and Business Studies would be useful for commercial photography and an art or curating career. The subject develops one’s ability to think creatively, through a rhythm of research, development of ideas, practical experimental and formulaic processes, reflection, critical review and analysis and evaluation. It will develop skills to solve problems effectively, which is important in any area of study where critical thinking is essential.
What careers and University courses can Photography lead to?
Photography could lead to academic or vocational degrees relating to art careers, advertising, commercial work, editorial, fashion, film, food, forensic, industrial, architectural, aerial, portraiture and wedding photography, sports and travel, press photography, photojournalism, fine art, editing, fashion photography or styling, the film industry, forensic science, curating, image library.
Transferable Skills
You will develop skills in creative and practical problem-solving, developing ideas through research, practical application, analysis and critique and gain better organisation. These transferable skills gained through study of photography are, in general, of wide applicability.
AS
There is synoptic assessment in both components of the AS that provide stretch and challenge opportunities for students as follows:
In Component 1, students produce an extended collection of work that exemplifies aspects of their developing knowledge, skills and understanding. It should provide evidence of research, the development of ideas, making skills and critical/contextual understanding. It should demonstrate the student’s ability to sustain work from an initial starting point to a realisation.
In Component 2, students respond to a stimulus, provided by AQA, to produce work which provides evidence of their ability to research and develop ideas and to make clear the link between their own and others’ work within specified time constraints.
A Level
There is synoptic assessment in both components of the A Level that provide stretch and challenge opportunities for students as follows:
In Component 1, students develop work based on an idea, issue, concept or theme leading to a finished outcome or a series of related finished outcomes. Practical elements should make connections with some aspect of contemporary or past practice of artist(s), designer(s), photographers or craftspeople and include written work of no less than 1000 and no more than 3000 words, which supports the practical work.
In Component 2, students respond to a stimulus, provided by AQA, to produce work which provides evidence of their ability to work independently within specified time constraints, developing a personal and meaningful response which addresses all the assessment objectives and leads to a finished outcome or a series of related finished outcomes.
