Photography with Arts Foundation Year

Photography is a discipline that sits at the intersection of technical skill, visual intelligence, and the art of seeing. A serious photographic education asks you to understand light, composition, and the mechanics of image-making, while also developing the conceptual and critical capacity to make photographs that have something to say. Whether documentary, fine art, commercial, or journalistic, photography is one of the primary visual languages of the modern world, and practitioners who understand its history and theory as well as its practice are better equipped to contribute to it.

At the University of Lincoln, this four-year full-time programme begins with an arts foundation year that provides an interdisciplinary introduction to creative practice across a broad range of art and design disciplines. The foundation year is genuinely exploratory, giving you the opportunity to develop your creative thinking before you commit fully to photography, and building the visual and conceptual foundations that the degree requires. The main photography programme then develops your practice and critical understanding in depth, and the programme includes a sandwich year with work placement provision, giving you substantial professional experience in a photographic or creative industry context before you graduate.

The typical entry tariff is 120 UCAS points.

Graduates of photography programmes work as photographers across a very wide range of contexts: commercial, editorial, documentary, portraiture, fashion, architectural, and fine art photography are all common professional paths. Others work in photo editing, curation, photographic education, and arts administration. The critical and conceptual skills developed through the degree are also transferable to broader visual communications roles in design, advertising, and media.

Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in photography, fine art, or visual culture.