What skills can be acquired in the field of photography?

The Bachelor’s program in photography at EKA emphasizes the exploration of contemporary art through photographic expression.

Key Focus Areas:

    • Conceptual Thinking: Students develop their ability to think critically and conceptually about art.
    • Visual Literacy: Our emphasis is on image analysis, the history of visual culture, and the interpretation of social processes in both the past and present.
    • Exhibiting Skills: The program trains students in effective presentation and exhibition of their work.
    • Interdisciplinary Relationships: Students explore the connections between photography and other art forms, including: Film, Sculpture, Installation, Graphic Arts, Painting.

Student Profile:

The photography program attracts curious, open-minded, and critically thinking individuals with a strong interest in visual culture and art. **Note**: After completing the Bachelor’s program, students have the opportunity to pursue further studies in the Master’s program in Contemporary Art, where they can continue to develop their camera-based artistic practice if desired.]

The Photography Department as a Competence Center for Camera-Based Art

We pay attention to visual literacy, image analysis, and focus on the broader understanding of photographic medium and visual culture as the intermediary of societal processes in the past and present. Technical skills also play an important role in our program. The Photography Department is small and cohesive, with collegial relationships between students and faculty. Over the course of twenty years, traditions have developed, including exhibitions, study trips, and of course, parties. The Photography Department is home to both recent high school graduates and those who have explored other fields in the meantime.

What careers can one pursue?

The Bachelor’s program in photography provides a solid foundational education that can be applied in various photography and (visual) culture-related fields. Our graduates work in art, education, and archiving; journalism; as well as freelance advertising, fashion, and architectural photographers.

Curriculum

The main goal of the Bachelor’s curriculum in photography is to help students develop their artist position, regardless of their specialization in the fields of photography or visual culture they choose to pursue afterward. The curriculum includes both  theoretical and practical courses, where students acquire basic technical skills and visual literacy, in order to analyze and interpret images. The total volume of the Bachelor’s curriculum in photography is 180 ECTS credits (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System). LINK TO DETAILED CURRICULUM

You can follow the Photography Department here:

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News and events

Artist Talk: Katya Lesiv

Koht: A-403 Aeg: 5.11 kell 12:00-13:00 Katya Lesiv (1993) is a visual artist and photographer, currently living and working between Ukraine and Finland. Lesiv works with the topics of cyclicality, physicality, emotional and sensitive experience, and motherhood. Her artistic practice explores the sense of presence through materiality of a variety of disciplines and media, including ...
Faculty of Fine Arts Photography

Art Love and Repair | ROUNDTABLE

Filmscreening and Roundtable Wednesday, 11 November · 18:00–20h00 · EKA A202 Põhja puiestee 7, 10412 Tallinn, Estonia. and online (register at ligia.fernandes@artun.ee to receive the zoom link) The evening begins with a screening and discussion of Laura Liventaal’s film “29”, developed at the Lisbon Psychiatric Hospital. Lígia Fernandes will present a retrospect on the Art, Love ...
Faculty of Fine Arts Photography

Art Love and Repair | WORKSHOP

Collage Workshop with Zane Shumeiko Thursday, 5 November · 18:00–20:30 · EKA Lab of Taste, B407, Põhja puiestee 7, 10412 Tallinn, Estonia. Artist Zane Shumeiko will lead a collage workshop exploring the idea of repair, in collaboration with members of Haabersti Klubimaja, a community space that offers connection and support to people living with mental health challenges. Through collage and ...
Faculty of Fine Arts Photography

EKA Gallery is looking for interns! Deadline 15.11.2026

EKA gallery is looking for photography, graphic design and installation interns! Only current students of the Estonian Academy of Arts, regardless of department, are invited to apply. Tasks of the photography intern: Taking photographs of gallery events (e.g. openings, tours, workshops) and editing them (1-2 times per month) Taking exhibition views and editing them (1-2 times per month) The ...
Graphic Design Photography Uncategorized

Group Exhibition “The Motorway is Clearly Audible Even with the Curtains Drawn”

On Thursday, 1 October, at 6:00 PM, the international group exhibition The Motorway is Clearly Audible Even with the Curtains Drawn will open at the FOKU Gallery, featuring artists Miklos Gaál (FI/NL), Katja Mater (BE/NL), and Mirjam Varik (EE). The curator of the exhibition is Tuukka Kaila (FI/EE). The exhibition proposes an understanding of space as actively produced by those who experience ...
Faculty of Fine Arts Photography

Talk: Emma Sarpaniemi

Koht: A-403 Aeg: N 17.9. kell 12:00-13:00 Emma Sarpaniemi is a visual artist based between Helsinki and Reykjavík. Sarpaniemi received a BA in photography from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK) in 2019. In her practice, Sarpaniemi explores womanhood and definitions of femininity through performative self-portraits. For her, self-portraiture is a playground, a realm for ...
Photography

Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo “Mind the Frog!”

One of the starting points for the exhibition is Karel Čapek’s The Gardener’s Year. Čapek’s sharp and humorous observations on a (city) gardener’s desires, joys, disappointments and endless need to care for something immediately struck a chord. Having spent an increasing amount of time at a summer cottage in recent years, I have also begun to develop my own, still rather vague understanding ...
Photography

Hilla Kurki & Taavi Rekkaro at FOKU Gallery

The duo exhibition "Something That Should Be Felt" by artists Hilla Kurki & Taavi Rekkaro opened at the FOKU Gallery. In the exhibition, the artists engage in a shared exploration about memory, personal history, touch, and how we relate to images. Both artists are searching for new ways within their practices, moving perhaps towards a greater spatiality and material presence. Together, ...
Photography

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