Where to go to study photography in 2022? | Articles | Photo, video, optics

Over the past half cen­tu­ry, pho­tog­ra­phy has become a real and, impor­tant­ly, a mass craft. And this craft has long been taught and done at the high­est lev­el. There are both short cours­es in pho­tog­ra­phy, as well as pho­to schools and direc­tions in uni­ver­si­ties. Today we will tell you where pho­tog­ra­phy is fun­da­men­tal­ly taught in St. Peters­burg and Moscow.

MOSCOW

Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia

Pho­to: rodchenko.sredaobuchenia.ru

Dura­tion of train­ing: 3 years. There are also var­i­ous cours­es, mas­ter class­es and open lec­tures.
Receipt: from 18 years old. Port­fo­lio con­test and inter­view.
Price: if you go to a free pro­gram (30 bud­get places), then a one-time fee of 50 thou­sand rubles at the begin­ning of train­ing for hard­ware, soft­ware and oth­er expens­es. The price for the tuition fee is 150 thou­sand rubles per year (also does not exclude com­pet­i­tive admis­sion).
What is the out­put: non-state diplo­ma, cer­ti­fy­ing the pas­sage of a day­time edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram at the School.

Moscow School of Pho­tog­ra­phy and Mul­ti­me­dia. A. Rod­chenko was found­ed in 2006 and is a struc­tur­al sub­di­vi­sion of the State Bud­getary Insti­tu­tion “Mul­ti­me­dia Com­plex of Con­tem­po­rary Arts”. As part of a three-year train­ing pro­gram, the school trains spe­cial­ists in pho­tog­ra­phy, mul­ti­me­dia and video art.

Among the lec­tur­ers of the cours­es are lead­ing pho­tog­ra­phers, art crit­ics, crit­ics both from Rus­sia and for­eign mas­ters as guest lec­tur­ers. The train­ing is focused on mod­ern pho­tog­ra­phy expe­ri­ence, orga­niz­ing exhi­bi­tions, cre­at­ing pho­to­jour­nal­ism and project activ­i­ties. Suit­able for peo­ple who are already film­ing and famil­iar with the basics.

photography academy

Pho­to: vk.com/msc_photoacademy

Dura­tion of train­ing: depend­ing on the cho­sen course. If we take the basic edu­ca­tion and cal­cu­late it from scratch to the end — about one and a half to two years.
Receipt: no com­pet­i­tive basis, no prepa­ra­tion required.
Price: varies depend­ing on course selec­tion. Thus, the first stage of pho­tog­ra­phy train­ing will cost 149 thou­sand rubles (22 weeks), and the final stage — 249 thou­sand rubles (32 weeks).
What is the out­put: the train­ing sys­tem involves a three-step process. After pass­ing each stage, a cer­tifi­cate is issued, giv­ing the right to enter the next course. After the end of the third, accord­ing to the results of exams and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, a diplo­ma is issued.

The Acad­e­my of Pho­tog­ra­phy has been oper­at­ing since 1997 and is the old­est edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion in the field of pho­tog­ra­phy in Moscow. She has an offi­cial license to car­ry out edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties in addi­tion­al pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion for chil­dren and adults and has a wide range of cours­es in the field of pho­tog­ra­phy, cov­er­ing direc­tions from street to fash­ion. In addi­tion to long-term cours­es, the Acad­e­my’s sched­ule includes many inten­sives, express pro­grams and train­ings that any­one can sign up for. Suit­able for begin­ners.

School of modern photography Photoplay

Pho­to: photoplay.ru

Dura­tion of train­ing: depend­ing on the cho­sen course. From short inten­sives to long-term train­ing. The lat­ter are Fash­ion Media Pho­tog­ra­ph­er (4 months), Com­mer­cial Pho­tog­ra­phy (1 year), Con­tem­po­rary Pho­tog­ra­phy (4 months) and Doc­u­men­tary Film and Doc­u­men­tary The­ater Direct­ing (14 months).
Receipt: port­fo­lio review and inter­view in the case of long-term pro­fes­sion­al pro­grams (a sep­a­rate set of entrance tests for direct­ing). Free entry for short-term.
Price: depend­ing on the cho­sen course. The cost of the longest in the field of pho­tog­ra­phy (Com­mer­cial pho­tog­ra­phy) is 285 thou­sand rubles.
What is the out­put: upon com­ple­tion of long-term pro­grams — a licensed cer­tifi­cate of com­ple­tion of stud­ies. For short-term — cer­tifi­cates con­firm­ing train­ing in a pho­tog­ra­phy school.

Pho­to­play was found­ed in 2005. The insti­tu­tion has an offi­cial license and often brings for cre­ative meet­ings as part of the train­ing of mas­ters of pho­tog­ra­phy from Mak­simishin to Steve McCur­ry. The pho­tog­ra­phy school has a wide range of cours­es, as does the pho­tog­ra­phy acad­e­my. From the basics of prod­uct pho­tog­ra­phy to work­ing with col­ored light. Suit­able for pho­tog­ra­phers already famil­iar with the basics.

Graduate School of Photography

Pho­to: azf.ru

Dura­tion of train­ing: “Pro­fes­sion — pho­tog­ra­ph­er” — 9 months, short-term — depend­ing on the spe­cif­ic pro­gram.
Receipt: with­out a com­pet­i­tive basis and entrance exams, for every­one.
Price: 300 thou­sand for a long-term pro­gram, the rest depend­ing on the choice.
What is the out­put: long-term pro­gram — state diplo­ma.

The Grad­u­ate School has exist­ed since 2008 and spe­cial­izes in fun­da­men­tal pho­tog­ra­phy. Only the clas­sics, includ­ing the basics: por­trait, land­scape, retouch­ing train­ing, prod­uct pho­tog­ra­phy and sto­ry­telling. The insti­tu­tion has a small set of short cours­es and one main course, which includes a com­plete intro­duc­tion to the work of a pho­tog­ra­ph­er from scratch.

British Higher School of Design

Pho­to: yandex.ru/maps

Dura­tion of train­ing: 3 years, bach­e­lor’s degree.
Receipt: port­fo­lio review, inter­view and entrance exam in Eng­lish (or the pres­ence of an IELTS cer­tifi­cate at lev­el 6.0).
Price: only paid basis, 625 thou­sand per year.
What is the out­put: inter­na­tion­al diplo­ma.

The British High­er School of Design was opened in 2003. Since its foun­da­tion, the insti­tu­tion has been coop­er­at­ing with the Fac­ul­ty of Cre­ative Indus­tries and the Fac­ul­ty of Busi­ness of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hert­ford­shire (UK). This is one of the few such places in Rus­sia where you can get a for­eign diplo­ma, which is list­ed in oth­er coun­tries.

Edu­ca­tion takes place only in Eng­lish, and all train­ing pro­grams one way or anoth­er relate to the cre­ative indus­tries (art, design, mar­ket­ing and busi­ness). Inten­sive cours­es are also held at BHSAD, where any­one can get. It should be con­sid­ered only by peo­ple who shoot and know the basics.

SAINT PETERSBURG

Academy of Photography

Pho­to: fotografika.su

Dura­tion of train­ing: full course of study — 2 years, advanced course — 1 year.
Receipt: in the case of a free basis — a port­fo­lio review, a sto­ry about your­self and an inter­view. To enroll on a paid basis of train­ing, you must pass a cre­ative show jump­ing.
Price: about 100 thou­sand rubles (month of study 5400, paid every month) for any of the cours­es.
What is the out­put: a diplo­ma of grad­u­a­tion from the Acad­e­my with a list of dis­ci­plines and the hours allot­ted for them.

The Acad­e­my of Pho­tog­ra­phy spe­cial­izes in doc­u­men­tary and art pho­tog­ra­phy. Since open­ing in 2015, the insti­tu­tion has retained two main cours­es of study (full, advanced, as well as online for­mats of these two cours­es).

Among the teach­ers are well-known pho­tog­ra­phers and cura­tors of St. Peters­burg, and class­es are only full-time and strict­ly dur­ing school hours. The full course of study (2 years) is aimed at com­plete­ly begin­ners in pho­tog­ra­phy, advanced (1 year) for ama­teur pho­tog­ra­phers.

Photo school “Workshop”

Pho­to: krista.ru

Dura­tion of train­ing: 8–9 months.
Receipt: it is nec­es­sary to leave an appli­ca­tion for train­ing, com­pet­i­tive selec­tion.
Price: two grants for free edu­ca­tion (Moscow, St. Peters­burg and online), for oth­er stu­dents — the full cost (depend­ing on the cho­sen course, about 100 thou­sand rubles).
What is the out­put: not spec­i­fied.

For­mal­ly, the “Work­shop” is not quite a pho­tog­ra­phy school: it is a com­bi­na­tion of three author’s cours­es of great pho­tog­ra­phers. Name­ly: Sergey Mak­simishin — “Pho­tog­ra­ph­er as a sto­ry­teller”, Ana­toly Malt­sev — “Reportage pho­tog­ra­phy” and Dmit­ry Kon­radt — “City as an artist’s palette”. Train­ing takes place in Moscow, St. Peters­burg and online. The cours­es are built on the the­o­ret­i­cal and prac­ti­cal parts. In fact, these are men­tor­ing pro­grams with almost face-to-face inter­ac­tion and feed­back on port­fo­lios and aca­d­e­m­ic work.

School of academic photography

Pho­to: spb.artphotoschool.ru

Dura­tion: 15 months in the case of a long-term train­ing pro­gram. There are also short cours­es and inten­sive cours­es.
Receipt: port­fo­lio review and moti­va­tion let­ter and inter­view fol­low­ing the results.
Price: 124 thou­sand rubles.
What is the out­put: non-state diplo­ma on com­ple­tion of stud­ies

The school, opened in 2009 by Vladimir and Veroni­ka Vish­nevsky, is inter­est­ing for a long-term pho­tog­ra­phy course. It takes peo­ple who are already film­ing, who choose a cer­tain direc­tion and devel­op in it. Edu­ca­tion in SHKAFU is built as a full-fledged edu­ca­tion on a bal­ance between the­o­ry and prac­tice. In addi­tion to basic train­ing, inten­sive and short-term cours­es are also often held.

School of Contemporary Photography “DocDocDoc”

Pho­to: docdocdoc.ru

Dura­tion: 11 months.
Receipt: port­fo­lio review and moti­va­tion let­ter.
Price: 63 thou­sand rubles for any of the cours­es.
What is the out­put: not spec­i­fied.

The school was found­ed in 2015 by doc­u­men­tary pho­tog­ra­ph­er Mikhail Domozhilov and artist Theodo­ra Kaplan. The edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion has three main areas — “Doc­u­men­tary pho­tog­ra­phy and pho­to­jour­nal­ism”, “Post-doc­u­men­tary pho­tog­ra­phy” and “Expe­ri­ences in mod­ern pho­tog­ra­phy”. Each course lasts 11 months and includes not only the­o­ret­i­cal and prac­ti­cal hours, but also free admis­sion to all meet­ings and mas­ter class­es with­in the school.

The school close­ly coop­er­ates with inter­na­tion­al pub­li­ca­tions, and grad­u­ates par­tic­i­pate in inter­na­tion­al pho­to projects and exhi­bi­tions. The train­ing focus­es more on the con­tem­po­rary pho­tog­ra­phy expe­ri­ence and new vision than on the clas­si­cal aca­d­e­m­ic teach­ing of the basics. Admis­sion is pos­si­ble only on a paid basis, and a seri­ous selec­tion awaits future stu­dents. For res­i­dents of oth­er cities, online train­ing is pos­si­ble.