Best University for photography

[leightonjames]

Does anybody have any idea which University is the best for photography?

Cheers,
Leighton

[Typhon]

At the risk of sounding stupid, why do you want to persue photography at uni, and where do you expect to be as a result of this?

[Louisa911]

Typhon has a point- why waste 3 years and god knows how much money on a uni course, when a qualification in photography wont get you much further into a career in it, than if you didnt spend all that time and money. If a client likes your photos, they will like them, vice versa if they don't. Do a more rewarding course in a different subject, but learn more about photography as you go along.

I say this because I'm doing an art foundation course, and this is all my photography friends have heard from my tutors for the past 2 months. Dont put all your eggs into one basket, kinda thing.

P.S good unis for photography could be Brighton or Falmouth, but chances of getting in there are slim unless you've done a foundation year. Applies to most other top places as well.Hope this was of some help, I may be completely wrong but its coming from my tutors and not me!

[Zad]

The catch is that, in order to get an entry level job in the first place, they will want to see qualifications. Unfortunately that is how it is, unless you know someone in the business. On a more constructive note, how about making a note of the sort of organisations you would like to work with/in, and contact their photo departments, or see if you can contact their photographers direct and see where they regard as a good place.

[Fordo]

ive been working as a video cameraman for 6 years now, and have more experience and knowledge that you can shake a stick at- but i still get asked at job interviews 'i see you havent done a media related degree, are there areas you lack knowledge, or similar'

To me, experience and real world knowledge are worth way more than a degree, but it seems a lot of employers just want to see grades on a bit of paper.

Im ot sure what uni's are best for photogrpahy, but Ive seen a lot of your work on here, and I think you could easily carve yourself a decent career in photogrpahy without a qualification in it. - your work is stunning! and your passion for photogrpahy is quite clear.

Those 3 years doing a degree, could be 3 years building up a portfolio and getting work.

Although- studying it at uni will help you make contacts and learn about all the different areas in photogrpahy, perhaps helping you learn on what area you want to focus and specialise in?

Ive been no help at all, have I? too much coffee too early in the morn

[CivicMan]

London College of Communication (formerly College of Printing) I've had several recommendations for.

http://www.lcc.arts.ac.uk/courses.htm

[leightonjames]

Thanks for everyones advice but I have my reasons for going

I'll check the London College of comunication civic man!

[Gold]

Have you considered doing a non-photography course or a joint honours degree including photography?

Having an additional skill set in addition to photography would be a useful skill for employment, e.g. being able to link your photography and other knowledge or having journalism skills or a language or a political/economic/scientific/engineering background to add to your photos?

[thehawk]

Being successful in photography is really down to who you know, how well you can network and how good your portfolio is marketed.

[Kermit power]

This is the sort of area where I've always wondered if you wouldn't be better off approaching one of the major companies in the field and asking them if they would be willing to take you on for 12 months as an unpaid apprentice/assistant.

You wouldn't be any more skint at the end of the year than if you'd gone to Uni, plus you would've had plenty of opportunity to get your own work seen, improve on your technique with pros in the real world, probably be able to borrow far better kit than you could afford yourself to improve your portfolio, and at the end of the year, if it hadn't worked out with a job offer, you'd only be 12 months late getting to Uni, with a hell of a lot of extra experience to take in with you.

[V8LM]

Zad said:

The catch is that, in order to get an entry level job in the first place, they will want to see qualifications.

If so (and I believe it is) it would be far more sensible to persue a generic course, at University o elsewhere, and keep up the photography on the side.

You may well get a job in photography with a proven ability to study and learn with a qualification in engineering and a proven latent to take good photos. You won't get a job as an engineer with a proven talent to take good photos and a degree to match.

[AndyKH]

I got my job in photography by chance but learnt very quickly that it's not the qualifications that get you work it's passion. I didn't have any formal qualifications in photography but was very passionate about taking good photographs, and that shone through. I'd say any UNI course in photography would be good but it's how you feel about photography that realy matters. Whilst i was an assistant photographer we had many CV's from budding photographers , none of them seemed suitable as they all emphasised on the qualifications they had rather than experience.