Open College of the Arts Short Courses Supported by the RPS

This short course will help you build a portfolio and gain a better understanding of the meaning of images you make and see.

What does it mean to engage with photographs?
Are you curious about what images mean?
Do you enjoy thinking about the visual culture that surrounds us?
How often do we look at photographs without seeing them?
How often do we take photographs without understanding what they mean and what they might be saying about us, the world, the medium?

In this photography short course, you will study alongside a small peer group, and through sharing ideas build confidence in expressing yourself.  

Guided by photographer and theorist Dr. Ariadne Xenou you will be introduced to key approaches to thinking in photographs and making photographic work. You’ll gain theoretical knowledge that will help you make images in new ways and expand your understanding and ability to articulate ideas.  By understanding the theory and combining this with your creative and technical skills you will develop the meaning of your pictures.

"This course has changed the way I engage with photography. It made me think differently about the connection between the photographs I see in my everyday life, photography as a cultural practice and art form with a long history''

Available worldwide for £350

Course registration: Wednesday 18 September 2024 
Access to course material on: Monday 07 October 2024 
Duration: 10 weeks, 8 hours per week

What do the places and spaces that surround us mean; how do different places make us feel and behave? how do we uncover the history, geography and politics under our feet? 

How is that meaning conveyed to an audience? Here is an opportunity to find out about the various ways in which ‘spaces’ become ‘places’ how they affect us emotionally and express that using photography (alongside other mediums). This unique course at the Open College of the Arts is supported by the RPS and provides an introduction to the fascinating way we can investigate, making practical work whilst relating this to critical debates on the idea of place, using the tradition of psychogeography.

What is psychogeography?
An exploration of urban environments that emphasises playfulness and ‘drifting’, founded by artist and filmmaker Guy Debourd in 1955, psychogeography is both a way of moving through an environment; and a framework for creative practice. Here you can explore the possibilities of navigating place and occupying space.

Explore a variety of methods of investigation including photography, writing, drawing and walking. Showcase your achievements with this recognised qualification which gives students an opportunity to acquire new skills for their work and life as well as develop and express their creative talents under the guidance of experienced artists and photographers already working in the field.

Available worldwide for £350

Course registration: Wednesday 18 September 2024 
Access to course material on: Monday 07 October 2024 
Duration: 10 weeks, 8 hours per week

CPD accredited
Download course details here