In this course, you will learn how to express yourself artistically through your photography under the guidance of local award-winning photographer, Simon Bray. Simon's work has been shown at places such as the Southbank Centre, Manchester International Festival, the British Journal of Photography and on BBC One. In 2021, he had the privilege of photographing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for Manchester Cathedral.
During the course, you will develop your photography skills through a variety of artistic approaches and ideas, in order to create beautiful images that portray your view on the world. Each week, you will be presented with a selection of photographic inspiration in the form of photobooks, presentations and discussion to inform and encourage new ideas in how you can utilise your camera. You will then spend time together as a group, undertaking tasks and challenges to learn new skills and approaches under the guidance of your tutor.
Sessions will be conducted in a friendly and social environment, surrounded by like minded peers who will offer support to one another. You will be led by a professional photographic artist who has produced multiple books and exhibitions of their work, as well as editorial and commercial assignments. Throughout the course, you will be invited to develop a body of work in your own time, as well as during classes. There will also be an opportunity to present your work at the end of the course. This photography course is designed to combine practical skills, the exploration of creative ideas and theoretical knowledge. Throughout this course, you will have opportunities to go out on location for group photography sessions, most likely in the vicinity of the College. You will receive further details of this once the course has commenced.
You will require an understanding of exposure (aperture, shutter speed and ISO), although support will be provided where needed. You will also need to be comfortable with processing and editing your image files in order to present them to the tutor within sessions. You will also require the willingness to learn and the means to apply yourself to your photography and chosen areas of interest, using whichever camera you prefer to use, whether than be a DSLR or your phone.
You will need to bring:
Please also bring ideas for the body of work that you would like to develop throughout the course. Ideally this will be something that is relatively accessible for continued shooting as the course develops. It could be as simple as your garden or a particular location, inspired by a book or film, or it could be founded in something more poetic or philosophical. Your tutor will help you develop this idea within the first few sessions.
It may well be that your body of work doesn't feel complete at the end of the course, which is absolutely fine given you’ll have only spent a matter of weeks on it! The intention is that you will have a firm foundation upon which you can then continue this work, or utilise the structure of working and apply that to a different subject matter. Further sessions can be offered subject to sufficient interest.