Subject Overview
Photography is offered as an option choice from Year 10, and it is taught as part of the Art and Design specification.
Firstly, students explore ideas through lens-based and light-based media and work with digital, traditional film and darkroom techniques.
Through the GCSE and A level photography courses students will experience how to use elements of visual language, line, form, colour, pattern, and texture in the context of photography, and gain an awareness of the intended audience and the purpose for their chosen area(s) of photography. Students will discover how ideas, feelings and meanings can be conveyed and interpreted in images, and how photography relates to social, environmental, cultural and/or ethical contexts.
The courses enable students to respond to an issue, theme, concept or idea, and work to a brief to answer a need in photography, to discover how to appreciate a viewpoint and gain compositional awareness. It is an essential for students to investigate historical and contemporary developments, different styles and genres in relation to photography and how images, artefacts and products relate to social, historical, vocational, and cultural contexts.
Through technical exploration students will discover the appropriate use of the camera, film, lenses, filters, lighting and understand the techniques related to the production of photographic images and, where appropriate, presentation and layout.
The teaching guides students to be visually articulate and to confidently create engaging images that integrate critical, practical, and theoretical studies.
Students will be expected to have their own DSLR camera, with SD cards, USB card reader, and battery charger.
Key Stage 4:
GCSE Photography
Examination Board: AQA
Immersing yourself in a creative subject like Photography has many benefits and offers the opportunity to gain a varied set of skills. Photography allows you to engage in lens-based art, which encourages you to be imaginative, thoughtful, and technical whilst also balancing this with the ability to analyse, deconstruct and explore the work of photographers.
Throughout the two years, there are opportunities to experience a range of photography styles from using the professional photography studio and lighting set-ups to being experimental in the darkroom and manually developing your own photographs. Digital photography and the use of software such as Photoshop elements will equip you with strong technical manipulation skills. The course is adaptive, meaning you can be inspired by Photographers and then incorporate your own style and learning to produce exciting individual photographic outcomes.
The aims of this qualification are to enable students to develop:
- Develop ideas through investigations, demonstrating critical understanding of sources.
- Refine work by exploring ideas, selecting, and experimenting with appropriate media, materials, techniques, and processes.
- Record ideas, observations, and insights relevant to intentions as work progresses.
- Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and demonstrates understanding of visual language.
A Level Photography
Examination Board: AQA
Students learn the ‘language’ of photography, how to ‘read’ and analyze their images, including the techniques, processes, and skills. This is a structured course, enabling students to creatively respond the work of relevant inspirational artists. Students start exploring key genres in photography including portraiture, documentary, reportage, fashion, street, still-life, and landscape photography, followed by their personal investigation. Photography allows you to engage in lens-based art, which encourages you to be imaginative, thoughtful, and technical whilst also balancing this with the ability to analyse, deconstruct and explore the work of photographers.
The aims of this qualification are to enable students to develop:
- Develop ideas through investigations, demonstrating critical understanding of sources.
- Refine work by exploring ideas, selecting, and experimenting with appropriate media, materials, techniques, and processes.
- Record ideas, observations, and insights relevant to intentions as work progresses.
- Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and demonstrates understanding of visual language.
