This module provides a practical and theoretical introduction to the use of photography as a method of exploring, understanding and communicating aspects of the built environment.

Through the main photographic project (named ‘Invisible Cities’ after the book by Italo Calvino), the student is introduced to the practice of photography by developing a project from research to publication. The syllabus introduces the historical, practical and theoretical contexts of photography and provides instruction in its application through a series of primer projects.

While developing a critical understanding of (primarily) digital image-making, the student acquires a broad range of skills including camera technique, image composition, digital image manipulation and publication while exploring and discussing the built environment. The module is delivered through a series of lectures, workshops, field-trips and tutorials.

In the main project, students usually work in and around Dublin City Centre. They observe, explore, photograph and discuss how spaces in and around the city centre are used - studying the materiality and design of urban spaces and how these accommodate and shape the social life of the city. The students work individually, but the work is discussed and developed each week collectively, building to make a collection of photographic studies of the city, each providing a unique insight into an aspect of the city that the student has observed. Each student’s work forms a chapter of the module’s version of the Invisible Cities book each year.

In 2020-21, due to Covid restrictions, the focus of the module has turned on subjects closer to home, producing a rich and engaging documentation of the students' experiences and observations of Ireland’s first lockdown in 2020 and the easing of restrictions in the Spring of 2021.

Well done to our students over 2020-21 who have managed to develop a creative and compelling series of photographs in very challenging circumstances.

The work of the module and projects from 2020 are introduced in UCD Architecture’s programme CURRENT here: https://youtu.be/DPf7y4afl50

Thank you to our contributors over the last two years: Hugh Campbell who joined us to discuss photobooks in 2020 and photographers Aisling McCoy and Ste Murray who provided invaluable feedback to the students as they developed their projects in 2021.

-Alice Clancy, May 2021

(Cover Photograph by Paul Stewart, 2021)