Study at PSC

This hands-on course is the study of photography as an art form, allowing students to explore and express thoughts and feelings through the medium, using a wide range of photographic equipment. You'll also investigate both historical and contemporary photographers' work. Students gain a wide skill-set, both theoretical and practical, that are subject-specific but also highly valuable and easily transferrable.

This two-year course is all about exploring the world through your lens. We'll help you discover your unique photographic style and create projects you're passionate about. We teach you how to discover your own themes and develop your own photographic practice in a tailored way through exploring subjects you are genuinely interested in. You will explore the work of other photographers and artists to see how they have approached making their work and how these approaches can inspire your own photography. We will teach you how to find other photographers who are relevant to your work and you will have the freedom to explore the work that excited you most.

We start the course with group activities and guided lessons to get you familiar with your camera and its features, as well as how to approach thinking like a photographer. Then, as you progress, you'll get more freedom to explore your own creative ideas using the techniques and approaches you have found most exciting.

Your work will be presented digitally on Google Suite, making it easy to edit, store, and even add things like videos, sounds, and website links to make your projects even more personal.

Our teachers aim to encourage, support, motivate, inspire, guide and challenge you. We believe in a collaborative relationship where we are working together to build your skills. Students who do best on our course are curious about the world around them and willing to take part in using their camera to make genuine discoveries.

Lessons are very varied, with some involving learning about the functions of a camera as a whole class or, in others, working in small groups to discuss aspects of photography such as how light behaves. You might spend time writing about a photograph quietly on your own or reading books from our extensive collection of books, coming up with ideas and planning personal, practical assignments, or working with Adobe Photoshop, in our darkroom or the lighting studio with models or one of our instructor team. There is a lot of flexibility in our lessons and there is a lot of focus, especially in the second year, on you choosing independently what you want to explore next.

We work with you constantly to give feedback - we might talk about your work in class together, or provide you with written prompts of things to consider next. At all steps we are responding to what you need as an individual, what your interests are and how we can build your knowledge and understanding.

We place a lot of emphasis on looking at a lot of art, not just photography, and so study visits to London and elsewhere are important parts of our learning process.

Year 1:

The first year involves you exploring the potential of the camera, thinking about how you observe the world and how you can make exciting and meaningful imagery. You can work both digitally and in our dark room to explore all the options available to you and learn what sort of photographer you are.

You will be introduced to a wide range of artist-photographers, past and present, from a variety of cultural backgrounds and working with all sorts of approaches. This helps deepen and widen their experience and awareness of the subject.

• Project 1: Mini Projects
  Students will make a number of small projects that are aimed at building all the skills that they will need over the next two years.
• Project 2: Mock Project

Students will make a number of small projects that are aimed at building all the skills that they will need over the next two years.

Year 2:

The second year allows for a continuation of the work begun in the first year but with a greater emphasis on independent working and ambition of your ideas.

• Component 1: Personal investigation worth 60% of the A level
  This involves one, extended, in-depth practical project, as well as a (1000 - 3000 word) written compulsory component.
• Component 2: Externally-Set Assignment worth 40% of the A level
  Here you are required to respond to (very open-ended) externally set questions or starting points. This involves a preparation period followed by 15 hours supervised time to conclude the project, over 3 days

Students pursue careers in photography, film and television, art curation, gallery work, fine art history, fashion, architecture, graphics, media content creation, journalism, radiography, surveying and many more.

Photography encourages students to develop time management, organisational and planning skills. Students learn to work independently, find creative solutions to problems and how to research to inform their ideas. The ability to look at what they have made, critically reflect and consider how to improve is also integral to the course. These skills are valued in many careers, not just those in the creative industries.

A camera with manual controls (DSLR or similar) is ideal, but don't worry if you don't have one yet. We have a very large collection of cameras, lenses, tripods, lights and other equipment that students can borrow.

A modest studio fee paid at the start of the course which allows us to provide materials (such as darkroom chemicals) and to continue investing in equipment for you to work with.

Individuals are required to cover the cost of any ongoing materials, although with working digitally these should be minimal. The College has a Student Support Fund for those students who might have difficulty meeting these costs.