Our Vision:
“CREATIVITY THROUGH TECHNICAL UNDERSTANDING”
Our Mission:
To create pathways of photographic training, that include secondary and tertiary programmes, and move beyond formalized education, into the worlds of professional and art based photography.
The Photo School will be driven by the pursuit of excellence, valuing personal integrity, innovation and diversity. The Photo School has a policy of accessible learning and encouraging participation at all levels.
Who Are The Photo School?
The Photo School is a boutique educational provider, delivering secondary and tertiary level photographic training. Our programmes are designed for passionate, enthusiastic, motivated people who love taking photographs.
We offer programmes that introduce and develop skills in technical photographic and creative image making, business skills for photography, and in digital and traditional film photography, including an array of antique processes. The emphasis in all instances is for practical, hands-on education that is accessible and seated in real-world photographic practice. Our programmes lead students to careers in a wide array of professional photographic applications.
Tertiary programmes are delivered from our purpose built facility in Raumati Beach, on the Kapiti Coast. Some components of Year One Photography, and the bulk of our 2nd and 3rd year BAppA content are delivered at the Porirua and Kapiti campuses of Whitireia New Zealand. Students find it rewarding and liberating to study in our unique environment.
Secondary programmes are delivered in schools around the country, and photographic training is offered online, for secondary students, through Gateway training, and for beginner photographers who find distance learning to be a necessity, through the Online Introduction to Digital Photography.
Please feel free to email or call us at any time to discover more about The Photo School.
The Photo School
22 Raumati Road
Raumati Beach 5032
Email: mel@photoschool.co.nz
Telephone: 04 902 7407
Facsimile: 04 902 7408
Urgent Contact: Mel Phillips – 027 444 0906
Or Marie-Jean Mills – 027 28 55000
Or for the Secondary School Seminars and / or our Online Programme:
The Photo School Seminars
Email: seminars@photoschool.co.nz
Online Introduction to Digital Photography
Email: onlinelearning@photoschool.co.nz
Postal Address
PO.Box 2178
Raumati Beach 5255
The History of The Photo School
Once upon a time, two good friends, Mel Phillips and Marie-Jean Mills, (who were also like-minded photographers), had a dream about a kind of photographic education that was practical, hands-on, and commercial in nature. They wanted to make a school that was holistic in application, that encouraged the pairing of technical control with creative freedom, and that brought real world skills like business management and marketing to aspiring photographers.
Mel, with his years of experience running a commercial studio, as well as teaching photography at a tertiary level, started writing photographic programmes. Initially, Mel Phillips School of Photography ran night classes – for beginner and intermediate level photographers, trialing ideas for a larger and more comprehensive operation. The students of those initial classes wholeheartedly embraced Mel’s approach, and many of them yearned for more.
Marie-Jean and Mel got pretty serious about it then. It became obvious that a longer, more cohesive study of photography would extend students skills in a more satisfactory way. An alliance between Mel Phillips School of Photography and Whitirieia Community Polytechnic, allowed the creation of the Certificate in Practical Photography programme. The students of the first six-month programme wanted more. Very quickly, a second, ‘Advanced’ programme was introduced, to accommodate the students needs. These two programmes have now been delivered successfully since 2000.
Since that time, Mel Phillips School of Photography has re-branded, to become The Photo School. One of The Photo School’s aspirations is to provide students with pathways into the photographic industry – potentially taking them from a new interest at secondary school level, through comprehensive training, and on into their own business operation in the industry, with entry and exit points along the way.
New programmes, including the Secondary School Seminars (formerly Kevin Capon Photographic Seminars), and an online digital photographic programme offered through Gateways have been added, allowing for that concept of the provision of pathways to progress. Whitireia NZ, in continued partnership with The Photo School now facilitates our Year One, Year Two, and Year Three programmes, which culminate in certificate, diploma and bachelors degree qualifications. Mel and Marie-Jean continue to teach, and to take photographs. Their team has grown to include other photographic professionals and graduates, The Photo School premises are expanding to accommodate increasing needs, and the programmes are constantly being adapted to incorporate changing technologies.
A The Photo School, we have a wonderful working family of professionals, teaching and administering all of our programmes.
Mel Phillips (Director, and Head of School, Tutor)
Marie-Jean Mills (Director, Pastoral Care, Tutor)
Glen Howey (Seminar Director, Tutor)
Stephen Rowe (Lead Lecturer Year 3 BAPPA)
Johanna Mechen (Lecturer Year 2, Digital Tutor)
Diane Connal (School Administrator)
Billie Win (Online Tutor)
Murray Short (Online Tutor)
Leala Faleseuga (Online Tutor)
All photographic works on this site are the property of The Photo School OR the Photographer who created the image.
No works may be copied or reproduced without the written permission of the photographer and The Photo School.
All text and documents on this on this site are also the property of The Photo School, unless noted otherwise.
