Use LibrarySearch to discover books, journals, articles, audio visual material and more on your chosen topic. This is a good place to start when you are beginning to research a topic as you can draw on content from a variety of different sources.
We have a range of resources to support you when researching for your assignments or exploring your discipline. There are books covering different photographers, artists and art movements, as well as academic articles, classic theory texts and technical handbooks.
Welcome to our guide to library resources for Photography students. As the Learning and Research Librarian for Creative Arts and Industries, I am here to support you in your learning and assignments.
Learning & Research Librarian for Creative Arts and Industries
E-books
E-books are very handy as you can read them off-campus. We have several useful titles which you can find them via Library Search on topics such as nature photography, exhibiting photography, stop-frame animation, studio photography, motion deblurring, art photography, digital photography and lighting. You can also find classic titles such as John Berger’s Ways of Seeing.
Print books
We have numerous books on the shelves, which provide an overview or introduction to a topic. You will find the majority of the Photography book collection at classmark 700 through to 779 (on the 3rd floor at Augustine House). Don’t forget, our library houses lots of resources covering a variety of subjects which are also here for you to access, check LibrarySearch to see if there are other areas that could be useful.
- 302.2244 Graffiti
- 686.2 Printing
- 741.652 Magazine Design
- 770 Photography
- 771 Techniques & equipment
- 778 Types of Photography
- 778.9907 Photo Journalism
- 779 A-Z Photographers
- 779.2 Photography of human figures
- 779.9391 Fashion Photography
To find a book, use LibrarySearch either by typing in words from a title or a topic. Once you have found a book, remember to check if it is available and if it is a 7-day loan or 4-week loan. This is important as the shorter loan books are on the open shelves in the middle of each floor and the 4 week loans are in the moving shelves. Some of the books may be in a large format (oversized), always ask if you need help to find these books.
Journals are regular publications and include articles written by different authors on their specific research. These can be challenging to read; however, they are great for finding up-to-date information for your literature reviews and for learning about current developments in your field.
You can browse printed copies of journals on the 2nd floor of Augustine House in the silent zone (west wing).
You can see what online journals are available by using LibrarySearch. Try entering the title in to the search box or using the Find e-journals link.
Here are examples of Photography journals:
- Aperture
- British Journal of Photography (print only)
- History of Photography
- Hotshoe International
- International Journal of Design
- Journal of Visual Culture
- Journal of Visualization and Computer Animation
- Photographies
- Photography and Culture
- Photography Quarterly
- Photoworks
- Visual Resources Association Bulletin
Run a quick search in LibrarySearch to find full-text journal articles to read online. Try searching for a key word or phrase connected with your research topic i.e. “photo-journalism” or “Bruce Gildon” or “practice-based research”. See our LibrarySearch quick guide for more information.
Open Access Journals
The Directory of Open Access Journals includes journals such as Arts. Open access journals are often scholarly, but the difference is, they believe in making their research accessible to anyone with an internet connection. This means that you (or your institution) don’t have to have a subscription to the journal to be able to read the articles they publish.
Databases are available via the Find databases link in Library Search.
We have databases that are collections of academic resources organised by subject. These are great for more detailed searches for your research. You can access these via the ‘Find databases A-Z’ link in LibrarySearch. The following are databases which relate to Photography:
a-n Artists Information Company: Online access to a-n Magazine and information for and about visual artists and their professional practice, including job opportunities and details about professional organisations.
Art Full Text: An index of art journal articles from periodicals published throughout the world. Some journals are available in full text. Check out the Art Full Text guide for more information.
Oxford Art Online/ Grove Art Online: Oxford Art Online provides web access to the entire text of the Grove Dictionary of Art with quarterly additions to new material and updates to the text, plus extensive image links. It also includes the full text of the Oxford Companion to Western Art, the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms and the Encyclopaedia of Aesthetics. Check out the Oxford Art Online guide for more information.
JSTOR: A full-text archive of core scholarly journals, dating from the first issue up until two to five years ago. Subject coverage includes art and art history, with over 190 journal titles relevant to your subjects. Connect here and log in through your library.
Project MUSE: Databases providing full-text access to high quality journals. Good for art and architecture, animation, graphic design, illustration and other topics
Vogue Archive: You can search the entire collection of Vogue. Subjects covered includes; textiles and dress, fashion history, popular culture, gender studies, photography and graphic design and marketing.
Web of Science: We hold the arts and humanities section within web of science.
Artcyclopedia: Large database, searchable and browsable by artists, movements etc.
Artists, designers and photographers’ own websites
Arts Council: Champion, invest and develop artistic and cultural experiences
Art History Resources: Links to resources for art history on the internet
Directory of Photographic Collections in the UK
The South East Archive of Seaside Photography
Kanopy is a great video-streaming service which includes a number of documentaries such as Night Photography: Episode 11 of Fundamentals of Photography II.
Plus, we have access to Box of Broadcasts (BoB) which archives British TV and radio broadcasts. You can search for a topic and find BBC, Channel 4 and Sky documentaries. Another great feature is that you can take clips of programmes and put them in your presentations or analyse the transcripts. Visit the Learning on Screen How to Videos or look at the CCCU Box of Broadcasts guide.
Here are some sites which contain images. You may also like to try the Learning Skills Hub modules on visual literacy which will give you some top tips about searching for images.
Artstor: The Artstor Digital Library contains over 2 million images from museums, archives, libraries, scholars, and artists. You can use Artstor to find images for your research and to use in assignments including presentations. See our guide for further information.
Artdiscovery.net search art-historical literature records from a collection of specialised art libraries
GettyImages: Large image databases, mainly commercial, personal registration may be required
Google Arts & Culture: An online platform to access high-resolution images of artworks housed in the initiative’s partner museums
Life/Google Image Archive: Search millions of photos from the Life Magazine photo archive, stretching from the 1860s to today.
SCRAN – digital collection of over 300,000 multimedia resources from museums, galleries, archives, libraries and the media based in Scotland
The Metropolitan Museum OASC: Open and free access to around 400,000 digital images from the collection
VADS (the Visual Arts Data Service): growing collection of visual art collections comprising over 100,000 images that are freely available and copyright cleared for use in teaching, learning and research in the UK
Online databases are great for primary research, background information, latest thinking, detailed theory, standard reference, study skills, and literature searching, and we have plenty to help with your studies.
Lynsey Blandford
Learning and Research Librarian