Course overview
Photography today is about more than technical skill – it’s about creating work that speaks to audiences and challenges conventions. This course gives you the freedom to explore analogue, digital, and post-photographic practices while building the critical and creative expertise to stand out in a competitive visual landscape.
What makes this programme different is its emphasis on creative experimentation and professional application. Instead of a traditional dissertation, you’ll complete The Connected Practitioner module – a major project that reflects your personal vision and career ambitions. Alongside this, you’ll gain entrepreneurial insight and learn how to navigate the legal and ethical dimensions of photographic practice.
Delivered 100% online, the course combines flexibility with academic rigour. You’ll collaborate with a global creative community, access industry-standard tools like Adobe Studio, and receive guidance from tutors who are active practitioners. It’s designed for photographers who want to push boundaries without putting life or work on hold.
Graduating with a UK master’s degree from a triple Gold-rated university (Teaching Excellence Framework 2023) gives you a competitive edge. Whether you’re preparing for exhibitions, building a freelance career, or advancing in media and publishing, this course helps you define and express your creative identity.
This course is ideal for:
- practicing photographers seeking academic and creative development
- visual artists and designers expanding into lens-based media
- media professionals and content creators looking to refine their storytelling
- graduates from related fields (such as fine art, film, media) transitioning into photography.
Course details
Course structure
Core modules
You consider aesthetic, technical, and conceptual approaches to image-making, and employ these in the planning, development, and resolution of a photographic project. You are encouraged to experiment, test new ideas, and actively challenge and develop your previous work.
Photographs are not just images: we encounter them in material contexts. Explore the ways in which photographs can be deployed and disseminated, and how they might be engaged with by viewers. You consider aesthetic, technical and conceptual approaches to produce a photographic artefact made for an intended audience.
Undertake a major, in-depth, individual study into a specialisation relating to your discipline.
This project is appropriate to commercial, industrial, creative, or research-based fields according to your own interests and career aspirations. You are responsible for the conceptualisation, research and development of the project, producing an end product relevant to your field of study.
Elevate your creative research skills, a cornerstone of all creative disciplines, fuelling both academic and creative work. Learn engaging research practices and critical thinking to tackle real-world issues, policies, and audiences. Join a vibrant postgraduate community, exchanging ideas and perspectives across various creative fields. Benefit from lectures and online tutors delivering key knowledge on current debates, issues, and research approaches in the arts and creative industries. Participate in seminars and studio sessions for active debate and practical application of research.
Making strong images is only part of a successful photographic practice. Develop the necessary skills to operate at a professional level, whatever your chosen career path and aspirations.
A series of seminars explores effective communication, marketing and promotion, legal and ethical obligations, business models, and careers in photography. You develop practical skills and industry know-how, underpinned by relevant critical and theoretical contexts.
Modules offered may vary.
How you learn
You learn through lectures, workshops and seminars individually and in groups.
You engage in research-led, project-based learning, developing creative skills and commercial awareness by working to industry briefs. Learning focuses on reflecting the reality of working in the creative industries, and throughout the course you will be encouraged to work both individually and as part of a group.
All you need is a PC, laptop or tablet to access the course materials and forum and share your writing with the tutors and your peers.
How you are assessed
Assessment is through coursework, including photographic projects, critical essays, and a major creative project through The Connected Practitioner module. Most of the modules include a progressive assessment strategy, with practical tasks set each week to support you in working towards in course assessment.
Entry requirements
Typically a first degree (2.2 minimum) in photography. We also consider other relevant experience or qualifications.
Plus a portfolio of images or a completed project demonstrating your skills, and a proposal outlining the direction of your work and aims for the course.
International applicants will require IELTS 6.0 or equivalent.
For general information please see our overview of entry requirements
Employability
Career opportunities
Choose to work as an independent photographer or within a range of businesses that require professional photography skills, in positions such as:
- art director
- film/video editor
- graphic designer
- gallery curator
- photography lecturer or tutor
- magazine features editor
- photojournalist
- press photographer
Learning platform
Our virtual learning environment (VLE) is the platform you use to access your online course
Teesside University online learning courses are delivered through the Brightspace Learning Environment.
Here are some of the benefits.
- You can use it on your smartphone, tablet and computer.
- And you can use it anytime, so that you can plan your learning to fit your own schedule.
- It's easy to use and navigate.
- Modules are set out by topics and themes. You can use the progress bar to understand where you are in your modules, and appreciate your achievements.
- We support you to become familiar with your VLE, helping you to start learning quickly.
- You get feedback, help and guidance from tutors throughout your course through the VLE, and you can ask questions at any time.
- Our tutors use a live activity feed to keep you updated about your course.
- You can create a student profile, collaborate with other students and take part in online discussion forums.
