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, trialling 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.

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