NEPN is a professional development agency for photography based in the Northern Centre of Photography, University of Sunderland. Through its commissioning, talks, portfolio review and associated programmes, it aims to create a critically engaged context of photographic activity and debate in the NE region.
This paper gives a brief account of NEPN’s history, outlining its underlying rationale and placing it within the academic framework from which it emerged and in which it continues to exist. It reflects on the underlying pedagogical priorities that underpin NEPN and what it contributes to the student experience. The paper ends with some wider reflections on the value of photographic education in relation to wider anxieties around the changing HE sector.