Learn Photography in New York City

What you can realistically reach: An intensive week sharpens real craft — exposure, light, composition and a disciplined editing workflow — and you will leave with a stronger body of work. A personal visual voice is the work of years.

Schools in New York City

Checked by hand against each school's own course pages. No school paid to be listed.

• International Center of Photography (ICP)
  One-Year Certificate (Creative Practices / Documentary Practice)
  The International Center of Photography in New York runs intensive August-to-May One-Year Certificate programs, including on-site Creative Practices and Documentary Practice & Visual Journalism tracks mentored by working photographers.
  https://www.icp.org/school/oyc
• School of Visual Arts (SVA)
  MFA Photography, Video and Related Media
  The School of Visual Arts in Manhattan offers a BFA in Photography and Video and an interdisciplinary MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media spanning lens-based, screen and installation practice.
  https://sva.edu/academics/graduate/mfa-photography-video-and-related-media
• Pratt Institute
  Photography MFA
  Pratt Institute in Brooklyn offers BFA and MFA photography degrees combining technical and conceptual training, with graduate studios at the Brooklyn Navy Yard's Dock 72 and dedicated photo labs.
  https://www.pratt.edu/art/photography/

The room

• Group — Small groups, with one-to-one reviews of your images.
• A normal day — Shooting assignments on location, then critique and editing back at base — a mix of field and screen.
• Who comes — Keen amateurs and emerging professionals, a broad age range.

Want the rest — a normal day, first hour to last? Ask the school; a serious one answers in two minutes.

The credential

One-Year Photography Certificate (e.g. ICP) · Certifying body: ICP / Spéos / no universal body (portfolio + diploma based)

A recognised qualification an outside body stands behind is not the same as a certificate a school prints itself. We name which it is — you should ask the school the same.

Also for Photography

What I check before I send you anywhere

I'm Arnaud. I cook for a living, and I've spent fifteen years on the water — so I know the difference between a real school and a good-looking website. I built the Atlas because I got tired of the second kind. Here is what a place has to clear before it goes on here, and what I'll tell you straight when it doesn't.

• The craft is actually alive there. A working scene, with people who do this every day — not a demo put on for visitors.
• There's a real teacher behind it. Named, still practising, and certified where the craft has certificates.
• The credential is what it claims to be. A state diploma and a certificate a school prints itself are not the same thing. I check which, and I say which.
• I tell you how sure I am. Most pages here are verified by hand. A few say "still checking" — I'd rather admit that than pretend.
• Nobody pays to be here. No commission, no selling the trip. The order on this map is the strength of the community, never the size of the wallet.
• If I wouldn't send a friend, it isn't on the map.