M.A. Photography Studies and ResearchFolkwang Universität der Künste

The M.A. Photography Studies and Research program is a two-year master's program designed for individuals interested in critical reflection on photography. The program aims to impart, deepen, and promote knowledge in several key areas:

• The history of photography, spanning nearly two hundred years.
• The widely ramified theory of photography.
• The practical principles of various photographic processes and technologies.
• Questions of restoring and conserving photographic materials.
• Curatorial practices.

The program always starts in the winter term, but it is possible to study part-time through individual arrangements. The tuition fee is 356.80 euros per semester, which includes a ticket for local and regional transportation in North Rhine-Westphalia.

This research-oriented master's program forms a tandem with the M.A. Photography Studies and Practice (Photography as Art), creating a unique combination of practical, theoretical, and historical interests in photography at the master's level within a European university. This proximity of artistic and scholarly interests is a core mission of the program. The research master's program includes practical courses that introduce students to the techniques, materialities, and artistic uses of photography, fostering an ongoing discourse on photographic forms.

For admission, applicants are expected to have a bachelor's degree (or master's degree) in humanities or social sciences related to the theory and history of photography, such as art history, philosophy, media studies, cultural studies, literary studies, linguistic studies, historical studies, sociology, or ethnology. Graduates with an artistic degree may be admitted if they demonstrate particular academic aptitude.

The academic curriculum focuses on six main subjects:

• History of photography
• Theory of photography
• Photography in the fields of art history, society, and history of science
• Institutional practices of photography (art criticism, working with and in collections and archives, curatorial theory and practice, the art market)

Students benefit from a close-knit network of institutional partners outside the university, including museums and archives, to link academic and curatorial interests. The program actively seeks cooperation with important collecting and exhibiting institutions, allowing students to work on current projects and gain early experience.

Practical courses are structured into three aspects:

• A comprehensive introductory course in the first semester covering apparatus-based aspects and materialities of photographic processes.
• A joint kick-off event at the beginning of each semester for all M.A. students to present and critically discuss current projects.
• In the second and third semesters, students from »Photography Studies and Research« participate in artistic courses offered in the practice master's program to gain insight into new works and artistic project development.

Further coursework includes philosophy and design history courses. Cooperation with the Department of Art History at Ruhr University Bochum allows research master students to take courses there. The program also involves a philosophical study group, a film series, exhibitions, guest lectures on aesthetics, philosophy, and cultural studies, as well as academic workshops and symposia.

Educational goals include profound knowledge of photography's history and theory, comprehensive practical understanding of photographic processes, experience in critical reckoning of artistic work processes, media analysis, curatorial and art-critical skills, experience in organizing academic events, critical reflection on research literature, publishing experience, independent research, confident use of English as an academic working language, and networking with national and international institutions working with photography.

The application deadline is May 31st each year. Applicant suitability is determined through interviews, for which a sample chapter from an extensive work or an article (15,000 to 30,000 characters) on photo history and/or photo theory is required. Interviews are conducted online by the end of June.