GCSE Photography

AQA GCSE PHOTOGRAPHY 2021- 2023.

60% COURSEWORK / 40% VISUAL TIMED EXAM

PORTFOLIO OF WORK (2 PROJECTS)

[96 MARKS 60% OF FINAL GRADE]

Photographic techniques.

You will investigate the different techniques used by photographers, graphic designers and artists to record the world around you. Over the course you will develop your use of digital photography, using both DSLR cameras and your phone camera. You will learn to use 35mm analogue cameras, develop your black and white films and print your photographs in our darkroom. There is an expectation to develop photography outside of just 2D and push your work into exciting experimental responses.

DIGITAL AND NON DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY, COLLAGE, PHOTOMANIPULATION, DIGITAL EDITING, INSTALLATION ART, SCULPTURE.


Weird and Strange

This project will allow you more control of your work. It makes you follow a line of visual enquiry. You will be required to research artists that have inspired your work and produce a varied portfolio of experimental pieces. This visual journey will then result in final pieces of your choosing.


Confident Expressive Work

Both projects will be based on photographers/artists who work in an imaginative, inspiring way. You will explore the different techniques and mixed media pushing your creativity and imagination. You will then be given the opportunity to make a large pieces based on your research and designs. We expect your work to be exhibited in school, in local exhibitions and we enter students in national competitions.

UNIT 2 EXTERNALLY SET TASK

[96 MARKS 40% OF FINAL GRADE]

Question papers are issued in January (in year 11). The AQA set question paper has 7 different starting points or ideas. These usually cover a range of techniques including Digital Photography, mixed media, fashion photography, culturally diverse photography, graphic design, installation art etc. Students then choose one question to develop over 3 months.


You will sit a 10 hour exam over two days (two full days in school working on your exam) executing a final piece planned in the prior 3 months. The supporting work and final piece is combined towards 40% of the overall grade.

“What I like about photographs, is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”

Karl Lagerfeld