We generally believe that photography is to teach people how to use cameras to take good pictures of people, scenery and objects, including many domestic colleges and universities. However, the photography major of foreign art colleges is more detailed, and different colleges have their own focus, which is divided into commercial photography, fashion photography, art photography, documentary photography, etc. according to the theme, and also divided into contemporary photography, dynamic photography, multimedia photography, etc. according to the media. Although many students studying abroad in photography major have their own fields of interest, they did not fully understand the professional focus and training direction of the university when they investigated the university, which led to the deviation of the final collection of works from the requirements of the university, and missed the opportunity to deepen their study of the fields of real interest. In order to help you better "know yourself and know your enemy", today we will list five photography major overseas students, LCF, SAIC, Parsons, CSM, SVA, and so on, for comparative analysis!

　　 LCF Fashion photography

Fashion photography, as its name implies, is a photography major around the fashion industry, which is also a direction that many students are interested in. However, there are not many colleges and universities that specialize in fashion photography, the most famous of which is London Fashion Institute (LCF) fashion photography.

With its unique advantages in the fashion field, LCF has set up a series of courses aimed at making students become professional and innovative fashion visual image producers. This has also been verified by our alumni. Most graduates have entered the fashion industry, including Gucci, Maison Martin Margiela, Oswald Boateng, Miu Miu, Mulberry, Vice, Vogue and other famous fashion brands or magazines.

Next, we will study the curriculum of LCF for photography majors studying abroad. The undergraduate program is a three-year program. The first year of the program helps us understand the whole fashion industry and understand the practice and knowledge foundation required for this discipline; The course of the second year is mainly to broaden or deepen students' skills in fashion photography, and also to provide practical opportunities for students, and to cooperate with stylists, makeup artists, models and art director experience teams to truly establish a real connection in this industry.

In the third year, the school will encourage and support students to develop their own fashion photography works, and require students to complete a research paper on fashion, human body or cultural issues related to media and communication industries.

If the cultivation in undergraduate stage is more to let students integrate into the commercial market to explore their own personal style, the study in graduate stage is more based on the students themselves as the center, and defines the new possibility and potential influence of fashion photography from the inside of the media.

The whole course lasts 15 months. The course is divided into two levels. The first is to help students produce creative and critical personal photography works through continuous photography exercises in the form of collaboration; On the other hand, from the cultural level, students will study social, cultural and commercial issues involved in fashion photography practice, and learn how to spread and develop new visual types by analyzing, evaluating and thinking about the relationship with creative industries.

　　 SAIC Commercial Photography

Fashion photography is also an important part of commercial photography, but when it comes to covering a more comprehensive commercial market, it belongs to SAIC, the Chicago Academy of Arts. We all know that SAIC's teaching atmosphere is free and adventurous, and the specialty in the direction of pure art is the top in the United States, and photography, as the core specialty of SAIC, is even more popular in the United States NEWS is rated as the top curriculum system in the United States.

First of all, let's take a look at the fields involved in commercial photography. SAIC understands that commercial photography is not only traditional commercial advertising, portraits, etc., but also any photography work that connects with the market, such as art exhibitions, photography collections, films, etc., which are an important part of the business link.

Based on the consideration of complex business market, SAIC hopes that students can have a comprehensive and solid grasp of traditional and modern technologies and concepts in undergraduate courses. Therefore, in terms of curriculum setting, the task will be heavy, and most of them will be carried out in the form of studio.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that SAIC is one of the first institutions in the United States to offer photography majors. With a history of more than 100 years, SAIC has not only cultivated a large number of well-known artists, but also accumulated rich human resources. Therefore, it also provides students with lectures, internships and even cooperation opportunities every year.

SAIC's course plan for international graduate students majoring in photography goes beyond the education of purely technical considerations, but is committed to studying the potential of photography, and can become a comprehensive talent of artists and photography professionals in a complex market environment.

　　 Parsons Portrait Studio

Parsons, who is also the leader of fashion colleges and universities with LCF Parsons School of Design However, its photography specialty is far from the business and fashion fields. Parsons photography major has clearly proposed to train students to become practical artists and scholars, and redefine the creative role of photography in the cultural level.

Parsons' photography major also proposed the concept of "non documentary photography", and also cultivated a large number of well-known artists. In the previous two years, Beckham's son Brooklyn also entered Parsons' photography major, which once again proved the strong attraction of Parsons' photography major.

Parsons' undergraduate courses are designed to help students focus on the combination of imaging technology and contemporary art. At the same time, through the study of art and design history and theory courses, they provide students with the conceptual depth of works, and also establish critical design thinking.

The course duration of the graduate stage is 26 months, and the creative teaching purpose is very clear. Students are required to surpass the current photographic examples and have the ability to predict and set trends instead of following existing standards. Parsons has also cooperated with the photography and art community in New York to provide students with opportunities for internship, exhibition and research.

Famous artists and judges are invited to help students place their work in a broader historical theory and visual cultural background. Because Parsons photography major attaches great importance to artistry, it has also added assessment criteria in the graduate stage.

The collection of works applied for by Parsons Photography is required to submit 20 works, but the form of works is not limited to photography, but also needs to include painting, sculpture, print, video, installation or performance and other art types. In addition, there are Parsons challenges. Although more comprehensive artistic techniques are investigated, to some extent, it is also a powerful condition for students who change their majors.

　　 CSM Contemporary Photography

Central Saint Martin is famous for its unconstrained artistic style. Its photography major is also unique. We can also see from the name of the major - MA Contemporary Photography: Practices and Philosophy/Contemporary Photography: Practice and Philosophy. At present, this major only has a graduate degree.

Professor Daniel Rubinstein, the Course Leader of this course, was interviewed before. His identity is not only an excellent artist but also a philosopher. His understanding of contemporary photography also explains the profession well: everyone is a photographer in the 21st century, and new software and technology have promoted the development of photography diversity, It also subverts the meaning of photography in our hearts, so in the course of Saint Martin, we pay more attention to helping people consider these new forms of photography and explore the possibility of photography as an art, technology, aesthetics and multimedia.

In the last interview, our teacher also personally experienced a contemporary photography course. From the teacher's intuitive experience, it is that this course is very "artistic". More importantly, it uses photography as a medium to convey some philosophical thinking, which is a new contemporary photography field.

This course lasts for two years. From the above student works, we can also find that the curriculum design of this design major revolves around interdisciplinary and has a simple structure. The two academic years are divided into two parts. The first is: practice to master photography, new media and technology through learning. The second part is research and practice. Students should master photography to develop practice across the fields of art, visual media, contemporary philosophy and new technology.

　　 SVA Cross media photography

　　SVA New York Institute of Visual Arts As one of the top schools of visual arts, its postgraduate courses also have a very detailed classification of photography major studying abroad, including photography and video photography, video, digital photography, fashion photography, and photography, video and related media we are going to talk about today, And only this major has an MFA degree.

As the name implies, the essence of this major is "cross media". Students will learn to participate in all aspects of multimedia art in the form of static or dynamic images. A series of innovative courses offered by SVA are also closely linked with new technologies, new theories and new professional practices under modern social media, in order to provide creative and professional support for students' future development.

This subject has been open for more than 30 years. With the development of new media and technology, the curriculum is also constantly updated. In order to constantly promote the boundaries of new technology, theory and practice, and bring the most cutting-edge teaching experience to students, the school has developed a series of creative activities in the field of contemporary photography, including documentaries, installations, films and conceptual art, Use the link between the picture and the real world to witness the change of photography.

SVA also integrates the business resources in New York, and provides substantial help to students throughout the enrollment period and even long after graduation to continue to pursue their goals.

SVA also hopes that their students can constantly expand their ideas, not only visually, but also through various channels to expand the form of photography. Develop creative activities combining contemporary and art, including experiments, narrative or documentary videos, installations and conceptual art, and witness multi-dimensional changes in photography with links between art and the real world.

With the progress of science and technology and the development of photography, there are more and more categories of photography majors studying abroad. Today, I will give you a comparative understanding of LCF, SAIC, Parsons, CSM and SVA. Almost every college's photography major has its own training direction. Students must carefully investigate before choosing a college, Choose which college is more suitable for you according to the direction you are interested in, and whose works are more suitable for the overall style of which major. After you know your goal and direction, prepare the most targeted collection of photography works!

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