Photography
(Photography)

INTRODUCTION:

The QQI Level 5 programme for the Photography course is designed to provide students with an introductory grounding in all aspects of photographic practice. Students progress through a series of workshops and lectures aimed at increasing their awareness of image making from concept to final production.

Upon successful completion of this course students will have compiled a portfolio suitable for application / progression to the QQI Level 6 Photographic Studies.

Running since 1997, the full time level 5 and level 6 Photographic Studies course successfully provides an in-depth education in photography; from film to digital, darkroom to image processing, studio to street, within the context of historical and contemporary perspectives.

Students who have successfully completed the course have gone on to start their own businesses as freelancers, as wedding and portrait photographers, as photojournalists and documentary photographers, studi photographers, printers and as artists. Inspired by the course, a high degree of students also go on to study photography (& other subject areas) at Third Level, with a significant number also coming from Third Level courses to study with us based on the reputation of the course.

We provide a passionate, interactive environment for students of all ages to find their feet (and often themselves!) in our well-equipped new facilities, for a very affordable fee.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS:

DURATION:

This is a one-year full-time course with the option of progressing to Level 6.

FEES:

€50 Registration Fee.
Total = €50.

Please see fees & payment for details.  

CERTIFICATION:

• QQI Photography – Level 5 (5M2094).

COURSE CONTENT:

The following subjects may be offered:

WORK PLACEMENT / EXPERIENCE:

Participants will be required to undertake 10 days of work placement in a relevant location. The College will assist participants in identifying suitable placements.

FACILITIES:

A brand new Photography Department in the refurbished church building on Douglas Street Campus. A fully equipped darkroom and processing area for B/W analog printing. A spacious studio with professional lighting systems, a digital Suite and digital printing room. Medium & large format cameras and digital cameras are provided by the campus.

EDUCATION PROGRESSION OPPORTUNITIES:

For full details on progression opportunities see these links:

• Cork Colleges Progression Scheme
• QQI Requirements

Excellent progressions opportunities including:

• MTU Cork: CR225 – Photography & New Media.
• TU Dublin: TU976 – Photography.
• IADT: DL833 – Photography.
• SETU Waterford: WD152 – Visual Art.
• TUS Limerick: LC110 – Art & Design.

Upon successful completion of this level 5 course students will have compiled a portfolio suitable for application / progression to the QQI Level 6 Photographic Studies course in Douglas Street Campus.

The level 5 course is seen as an important stepping stone to the 2nd yr level 6 Photographic Studies programme .

However students will also have the opportunity to apply to 3rd level colleges.

Over the last 20 years a large number of our level 6 graduate students have progressed on to the first year and second year of a number of photography degree courses in the island of Ireland including DL833 Photography degree in iadt (Dún Laoghaire college of Art and Design), TU976 Photography degree course in Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin, formerly DIT) and W641 Photography with Video course in Ulster University Belfast. Students have also progressed to a number of photography and fine art degree courses in England, Wales and Scotland.

Recently students have also progressed onto the new degree course CR225, Photography with New Media in the Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork.

The option of applying to broader based art and media courses is of course also a viable option.

Students have also progressed to other Third Level degree courses unrelated to the core subject e.g., Philosophy, Psychology, Anthropology, Digital Humanities etc.

We advise you to consult the CAO website – www.cao.ie to confirm specific entry requirements for Higher Education Institutions.

QQI Level 6 awards may have advanced entry options into some Higher Education Institutions.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES:

The level 5 course is seen as an important stepping stone to the 2nd yr level 6 Photographic Studies progarmme .

The level 6 course prepares students to progress to a broad range of employment areas within the photographic medium; from freelance work to running their own studio or business, to working as photojournalists or photo editors or artist-photographers. To date we have an almost 100% success rate for students progressing to further study at Third Level colleges in Ireland and abroad. Our students have gone on to have work published in magazines, to edit magazines, to publish books of their own work, to become artists and curators, and to successfully start and run their own businesses.

STUDENT TESTIMONIALS:

Zach Cronin

Photographic Studies Graduate – QQI Level 6 (2019).

Izabela Szczutkowska

Photographic Studies Graduate

Portfolio: https://www.irishartsreview.com/new-generation-artist-work/izabela-szczutkowska/

https://www.tudublin.ie/grangegorman/news-and-events/2020-graduate-wins-gallery-of-otography-award.html

https://www.izabelaszczutkowska.com/

Izabela Szczutkowska , Former Douglas Street Campus Photography Student, Evening Echo, Thurs Jan 17th 2017.

Jean Curran

Photographic Studies Graduate

“No, what makes me a good image-maker is spending time engaging with the practice and thinking about what each image needs to say.”

The Vertigo Project by Jean Curran. Irish Examiner, Fri, 11 Jan, 2019.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-30896882.html

From Both Sides: a collection of black and white photographic portraits of soldiers in Afghanistan that were then painted by hand by an Afghan artist.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/two-sides-to-the-art-of-war-in-afghanistan-1.2183877

Brian Quilinan

Photographic Studies Graduate

Professional printer at Imagine Art , fine art printing , Cork https://imagineartprinting.com/printing/

Editor and contributor to a photo website OnEgdgeStreet https://onedgestreet.com/

and a contemporary practitioner .

“The pleasure is here and now..

“The experience of the present moment is all that is really precious to us. It is our connection to everything. When people start to look at their phones when Bill Clinton rolls down the street I’m amazed with how easily they become transfixed on tiny pixelated screens over the immense richness of the world surrounding them. While the photographer’s preference is to record what is significant, the challenge is that this desire must not weaken the lure of life’s significant moments themselves. The idea of being free to live through a moment while the shutter happens to fire, this fascinates me no end. True expression isn’t made, it happens.”

‘Brief Thoughts on Photography Today’ by Brian Quillinan.

https://onedgestreet.com/brief-thoughts-on-photography-today/