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The Yu. A. Galperin Photo Faculty is the oldest photography school in St. Petersburg, founded in 1959 as part of the University of Worker Correspondents at the Leningrad House of Journalists. Its founder and dean, Yuli Abramovich Galperin, was a legendary photo editor who worked with photojournalists for many newspapers and magazines.

As it happened, among professionals, the title of graduate from the Faculty of Photo Correspondents has been valued for many years far more highly than a university diploma. Almost from its birth, photography developed along two main paths: "constructed" or conceptual photography, where the author used the camera and printing to manipulate reality, altering it to suit their vision; and "straight," realistic photography, where the author captured what they saw before them without interfering with the surrounding reality. After all, real life, caught through the camera lens, can sometimes surprise us, the viewers, more powerfully than any invention.

It is realistic, reportage photography that is the primary focus of education at the Photo Faculty. Year after year, our students and graduates have preserved significant moments of the past in their frames, compiling a chronicle of our native St. Petersburg. Two years ago, the opportunity arose to study at the Photo Faculty online, from virtually anywhere in the world.

Many of those who graduated from the Photo Faculty changed their lives and became well-known professional photojournalists, photographers, and documentarians. Today, graduates of the Yu. A. Galperin Photo Faculty work at the Hermitage, the Russian Museum, the Conservatory, and other major state and private companies, as well as in international photo agencies and media. Many have become winners of various Russian and international photo competitions.

Most educational programs at the Yu. A. Galperin Photo Faculty last two years. The world is changing, and we are not standing still—new photography training programs are emerging. Today, we train aspiring photographers in the fields of: reportage, documentary photography, photo editing and photo design, street photography, and videography.