BA Photography: Year of 2024

As you can see from the work in this year’s show, these young photographers know how to make a good image. They have learned and developed these skills over their time on the course. They leave us as skilled technicians. But the work in the show is not just a demonstration of photographic skill. It is fused with artistic comment, commercial awareness, and subjective inquiry. It speaks to what these young photographers now know: that a photography education concerns so much more than the craft of making light-informed pictures. Photography features in every aspect of our lives, sometimes hidden but always there. The frames of reference for our subject are manifold. Thinking about and through photography is thus to think about and through the world; as much a political, ethical, and philosophical education as a technical one. Our graduating students leave us with the knowledge and potential to have a genuine impact on culture at large, which is an exciting proposition. Against a widespread philistinism, where the arts face an increasingly hostile environment, this is important to emphasise. 

The next stages of these graduating students’ careers will no doubt be as varied as their interests. But having worked closely with this group over the course of the year, I am sure they will meet these futures with the enthusiasm, care, and humanity that has made them so enjoyable to work with. Importantly, alongside the knowledge and skills they have gained and the professionalism they have developed in navigating the challenges of collaborative working, they also take with them the relationships they have formed as a cohort. Creative community is central to the ethos of the course, and while the show inevitably celebrates individual achievement, it is also a celebration of the power of creative collaboration. I look forward to seeing where this takes them next. 

Dr David Eckersley