Choosing Your Topic

• Consider a range of potential themes or issues before deciding on your final choice. Evaluate each one carefully for feasibility and consider your interest level, availability of resources and scope for creative exploration.
• Your chosen topic should allow for depth and breadth. Ensure it’s diverse enough to explore varied processes, techniques, and styles, and complex enough to provide ample substance for analysis and evaluation.
• Select a topic that you are genuinely interested in, as you will engage with it over a long period and its depth will affect the quality of your investigation.

Relevance and Coherence to a Photographic Study

• Pick a topic that has a strong relationship with the photographic medium. This will provide a cohesive framework for your investigation and allow you to incorporate relevant photographic techniques.
• Keep your project focused and coherent around a specific photographic context, such as documentary, portrait photography, landscape or conceptual art.
• Ensure the theme or issue you pick has a variety of visual and conceptual possibilities. This will allow you to experiment widely with photographic technique and visual methods, opening up meaningful discussion and analysis.

Considering Theoretical and Contextual Aspects

• The topic should provide sufficient scope for in-depth contextual and critical review. Choose something that allows you to relate your investigation to historical and contemporary photography, cultural institutions, techniques and trends.
• The best topics often have some sort of social, political, or cultural relevance to enable you to gain a greater understanding of the wider context of the photographic practice.
• It’s often beneficial to select something that has links or parallels with other forms of visual culture or art, as this can provide a broader cultural frame of reference and can deepen your understanding and evaluation of the subject.

Establishing Scope and Potential of Topic

• Consider if there is a range of primary and secondary resources available on your chosen subject. If the exact material is scarce, are there related subjects that can inform your study?
• Evaluate how your topic allows for experimental and technical work in photography. It should provide room for practical mastery by encouraging you to try out different techniques, genres and equipment.
• Consider ethics and safety in your choice of subject. Make sure it’s feasible from a logistic standpoint, it doesn't engage with unethical practices, and it doesn’t put you at risk. Picking an accessible, safe and ethical topic ensures a smooth investigation process.

Remember, the choice of the topic sets the direction for your entire personal investigation, so it's crucial to choose wisely. Make sure it's a subject you're passionate about, offers plenty of scope for in-depth research and creative experimentation, and links into wider issues in the world of photography.