City Lit college in London is currently offering a selfie course – and the path to the perfect profile pic.

The course – which is officially called ‘The art of self portraiture‘ – promises to ‘improve your critical understanding of the photographic self portrait’ and is being offered by the City Lit, an adult education college in Covent Garden, London.

This is the official description on the City Lit website:

The course is a theory/practice introduction to photographic self-portraiture; it is conceived for students to improve their critical understanding of the photographic self-portrait, as well as a platform to develop ideas towards the creation of a coherent body of work.

The course promises:

– Appreciation and critique of visual work from a variety of practitioners

– Recurrent ideas and concepts that surrounds self portraiture

– Brief enquiry into the notions of identity, selfhood and memory

– Group discussions (informal crits) and project development

– Evaluation of students’ previous photography in relation to the topic

– Final critique of work produced during the course.

Over four sessions budding photographers will be taught how to ‘explain ideas of space, place and surrounding issues’, ‘use light and significant detail’ in their work and even ‘develop new ideas to make your photography more relevant to your aims’.

There was no mention of teaching students how to strike a killer duck-face or embarrass themselves when they meet a celebrity.

Although the course is likely to attract serious photographers, it is open to all, including potential students who have only ‘engaged in self-portrait –even in the most casual way’.