FH2S44 - Research for Practice and Dissertation 01 Sep 2020 - 31 Aug 2026 | Version 1

Associated Module Information

Module Code: FH2S44
Module Title: Research for Practice and Dissertation
Faculty: Faculty of Business and Creative Industries
Faculty Group: Fashion, Marketing and Photography
Faculty Sub Group: Photography
Module Leader: Eileen Little
Module Team: David Barnes, Paul Reas, Steven Wright, Karin Bareman
First Intended Intake: SEP 2020 Final Year of Intake: 2025
Date Closed:
Credit Value: 20 Credit Level: 5
Language: English
Percentage of Module Taught in Welsh: 0
Equivalent Module:
HECOS codes: 100632 - visual communication
HECOS Code Weighting: 100

Document Version Information

Version 1
Valid From 01 Sep 2020
Valid To 31 Aug 2026

Module Aims

  • Develop students further understanding and appreciation of the key concepts and core practitioners in photographic theory and their standing in the historical and contemporary photographic canon.
  • Provide students with a critical understanding of how differing viewpoints and frameworks influence making and writing about art, photography and visual culture.
  • Enable students to reflect critically upon their personal and professional practice particularly in preparation for both their practice and Critical Paper at level 6.

Content Summary

The module deepens students’ understanding of the readings and critical theories that have previously been studied, and connects these to how students make, describe and rationalise their own practice. The module links theories from photography, fashion, film, art and advertising through a programme of lectures and seminars. As such, it is both a preparation and planning for students’ dissertations and critical papers and also lays the theoretical foundations for their final year major project.

Lectures, seminars and readings will introduce the student to a range of different approaches to the study of photography and how it connects to practice and wider visual culture. Key texts by important writers in each area will be examined and placed in a historical and cultural context. Students will be asked to select a particular field of enquiry for further exploration and undertake a close examination of that field, looking at a range of sources: this will involve the use of the library, database searches and the internet.

Learning and Teaching Methods

Activity Type Hours
Lecture 16
Seminar 20
Tutorial 4
Independent Study 125
Directed Study 35
Total Hours Selected 200

Learning Outcomes

# Learning Outcome
LO1 Identify and relate the key theories of photography to broader visual culture.
LO2 Demonstrate how viewing and making photography can be clearly analysed combining different theoretical perspectives, whilst demonstrating a good range of research and bibliographic techniques.

Module Requisites

N/A

Assessment Criteria

Assessment Category Assessment Type Description Duration Word Count Weight (%) Best of? Pass Mark
Asynchronous Assessment Essay 1 A submission of a Harvard referenced written essay (we see this as Critical Paper preparation) with appropriate illustrations. The text will be a literature review that connects the research material presented in lectures to both the students’ planned Critical Paper and their own practice. The summatively assessed written text will be marked for range and relevance of research materials, application of theory to practice. 0 5000 100 No 40

Assessment Matrix

Assessment Type Learning Outcomes
LO1 LO2
Essay 1

Reading List

Arden, P. 2006. Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite. Penguin Book.

Badger, G. (2004). The Photobook: A History Volume 1. Phaidon Press.

Batchen, G (2004). Forget me Not: Photography and Remembrance. Princeton: PAP Press.

Barthes, R. (1972) Mythologies. Jonathan Cape.

Brougher, K. (2001). Open City: Street Photographs Since 1945. MOMA.

Clarke, G. (1997). The Photograph. Oxford University Press.

Craik, J. (1993). The Face of Fashion: cultural studies in fashion. Routledge.

Cotton, C. (2009). The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Thames & Hudson.

Grundberg, A. (1990). The Crisis of the Real: Photography and Post Modernism. The Photography Reader. Routledge.

Higonnet, A. (1998). Pictures of Innocence. Thames & Hudson.

Marien, M. (2006). Photography: A Cultural History. Lawrence King Publishing.

Tagg, J. (1998). The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories. Palgrave Macmillan.

Wilson, E. (1985). Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity. I.B. Tauris.

Wolf, N. (1991). The Beauty Myth. Vintage.