http://www.arcurs.com/if-you-like-traveling-photography-and-learning-from-the-best-read-this

If you like traveling, photography and learning from the best, read this!
Posted on: September 22, 2011

This year Yuri Arcurs Photography is putting together an elite international academy program in the hope of producing the most competent and gifted photography class of 2015. This private funded program runs for three years, during which participants will be given a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience travel to exotic locations, a first-class photography education from some of the industry�s leading experts, and working experience through interactions with real projects, clients and top models.

We are looking to recruit 10 � 15 candidates, who will have to prove they are motivated, ambitious and bright. You will be given the opportunity to prove you have what it takes at our two-week long photography boot camp in January 2012. Very little photography knowledge is needed, we will equip you with what you need to know.

During the 3 year education you will have exams in the following subjects:
� The technical skills required to use all Nikon, Canon and Hasselblad cameras.
� Video recording and editing with SLR camera�s, RED epic and others.
� Basic and advanced photoshopping.
� Advanced RAW processing.
� Advanced digital image theory.
� Shoot planning and execution planning.
� Creative research, Image Critique.
� Branding, Client managing, Invoicing, Legal aspects.

How to qualify:
In order to qualify for the program, you must pass a 2 week boot camp in Cape Town, South Africa. The boot camp offers all it�s participants an opportunity to receive first-class photography training, even those who do not get accepted into the program.
To be considered for the photography boot camp you must:
� Manage your own accommodations and travel into Cape Town for the boot camp duration.
� Bring your own digital SLR camera that can produce at least 16 mega pixel images.
� Bring at least one 50mm or 85mm lens that can shoot no less than 2.0 in aperture.
� Bring at least 16 Gb of memory for your camera (CF preferred).
� Be able to stay 2 weeks in Cape Town for training and assignments from January 3rd 2012.
� Be able to dedicate 3 years of your life for this education starting from January 23rd 2012 and have no problem spending up to half of the year in all parts of the world with the primary base in Cape Town, South Africa.
� Have no criminal record or any other criteria that would not allow you to travel to Europe or other places.
� Agree to potentially being part of a TV production about the boot camp for reality TV.

How to apply:
Contact us no later than DECEMBER 1st on [email protected] and make sure to mark the mail �Photography student� and include ALL of the following to be considered for the education:
� Motivation letter � tell us why you are interested in this education.
� Your CV.
� Any reference letter from previous employers.
� Something about yourself.
� A photograph of yourself.
� A statement showing a clean criminal record.

The final class candidates will be announced on JANUARY 17th 2012. The best candidates will be offered a job at Yuri Arcurs Photography after graduation.

Click here to see the flyer!

NB: PLEASE NOTE THAT ANY ATTEMPT TO CONTACT YURI HIMSELF DIRECTLY WILL DISQUALIFY YOU FROM BEING CONSIDERED!

I'm intrigued by this! I can't work out where the money is coming from for Yuri. The 'reality TV show' thing sounds like a hook to me. I can't see watching people taking photo's making prime-time viewing.

I can't see watching people taking photo's making prime-time viewing.

Mix in some love triangles, backstabbing, distraught models, losers being sent home with dreams crushed and a comic sleezeball or two.  Could work. 

I'm intrigued by this! I can't work out where the money is coming from for Yuri.

Who do you think is going to hold the copyright on 3 years of photos from 10-15 "photographers".  Talk about flooding the market.  Unbelievable.

LOL, I'm not available.  I've already got a conflict between being on "Next Food Network Star" and "Survivor: Denmark".

Seriously, if the point of this isn't just to crush everyone here, I don't know what it is.  "Sharing" at its best!

Quote from: trek on September 22, 2011, 08:13

Quote from: gostwyck on September 22, 2011, 07:11

I can't see watching people taking photo's making prime-time viewing.

Mix in some love triangles, backstabbing, distraught models, losers being sent home with dreams crushed and a comic sleezeball or two.  Could work. 

Populated with some of the denizens of this forum it would be compulsive viewing.

LOL!

Very interesting program. A lot more intense than istocks "Feast" or the Lypses. The people walking out of that training will be really very experienced.

Looks like Yuri will be in the industry for a long time.

Actually, this is brilliant.  The models turn into celebrities on the reality show and Yuri has their model-released imagery to sell forever.  Nice.

3 years is a really long time.  I would be concerned that there would be any market left for new contributors after that time.  There isn't much point in learning how to be like Yuri now when there are so many people already doing it.

The reality TV bit made me do a double take.  I know there's a reality TV show about almost everything now but is learning photoshop going to make compelling viewing?  I suppose they will skip that and concentrate on the models.  There's so many TV channels now, I suppose there's going to be shows about everything.

10-15 photographers travelling around the world - I'm guessing Yuri is moving into editorial stock, for which the only real skill you need is being able to be somewhere with a camera, I'm sure they'll get some training about the basics of photography, they'll certainly get educated in giving away copyright 

Is there going to be an Immunity Prime Lens? Will Gordon Ramsey come to berate you if you forget the clipping path? Acurs Tribe vs. Rodriguez Tribe?

I already think most people here are playing the Microstock Survivor home game. 

eheheh Yuri is just playing at his best once more! trying to make us think and get depressed while his empire get bigger and richer, thats a great strategy, I hope more will quit as we keep on working and enjoying these kind of posts (right after the falling of IS topic from last week)

YAYYY

BRILLANT!   Im glad he is my country neighbour!  we Scandinavians are pretty clever arent we. I wish him luck, he has got more balls then all of us put together.

For those of you laughing?  dont!  in a few year you might be in for a shock.

Good luck to you mate!  

best.

So, this is like Hogwarts?

I'm thinking this can only be bad for all of us

I'm thinking this can only be bad for all of us

Why so? Yuri's is a numbers game, formulaic and repetitive. He can increase his output astronomically, and it won't be much of a threat to anyone focused on creativity.

It's also anything but guaranteed this initiative will run its course. He's basically saying he wants 10-15 new interns for 3 years - a tall order. I wonder what the drop out rate will be out of this non-accredited 'school'. Not that it will matter much I guess. He most likely keeps the copyright, people can drop out when they like.

The only mystery left to Yuri is how he doesn't go mad, churning out the same over and over. I guess the money keeps him sane! :-D

...but it's enough of a possibility to worry me in an already saturated industry.

Think about the numbers. Even if all 15 'students' were to able to produce a massive 1000 new images per month each, for all of the supposed 36 months of the exercise, it would still only amount to about 500K in total. That's not much in the greater scheme of things over 3 years. How much would that all cost in terms of models, sets, etc? Far more realistic would be 100 new images per month per student in which case it is only 50K images over 3 years. That's no real threat at all unless they happen to compete directly with your own subject matter.

Quote from: SNP on September 22, 2011, 18:29

...but it's enough of a possibility to worry me in an already saturated industry.

Think about the numbers. Even if all 15 'students' were to able to produce a massive 1000 new images per month each, for all of the supposed 36 months of the exercise, it would still only amount to about 500K in total. That's not much in the greater scheme of things over 3 years. How much would that all cost in terms of models, sets, etc? Far more realistic would be 100 new images per month per student in which case it is only 50K images over 3 years. That's no real threat at all unless they happen to compete directly with your own subject matter.

maybe.

I wouldn't scoff too much at the "no photography experience required" bit...just go back four or five years and look at the earliest files from some of the biggest microstock shooters. people can and do learn very quickly.

Quote from: Sadstock on September 22, 2011, 06:48

Very little photography knowledge is needed

I can't stop looking at this!

Look at the bottom of the first page of the flyer : http://www.arcurs.com/wp-content/uploads/Become-a-Photographer.pdf

"NO PHOTOGRAPHY BACKGROUND IS REQUIRED!"

This doesn't seem serious at all.. at least for me.

But isn't that how Yuri started?  I thought he tried the micro thing to get through college.

Or do I have my rock stars mixed up?

You were joking, right?

[....] I'm guessing Yuri is moving into editorial stock, for which the only real skill you need is being able to be somewhere with a camera, [....]

I still can't see a reality TV show about stock photography being on a big channel.  Wont it be on one of the digital channels that don't get many viewers?  And it doesn't look definite, it's only potentially going to happen.  Perhaps they want to film a bit and then decide?  It might be on a channel that none of us can get, so we have to buy the DVD.

It would be of interest to most stock photographers but I'm not sure it would be watched by many of the general public.

[....] I'm guessing Yuri is moving into editorial stock, for which the only real skill you need is being able to be somewhere with a camera, [....]

You were joking, right?

No I wasn't joking - His advert mentions they'll be travelling around the world. There's a lot of money to be made from editorial stock, just read the Alamy forums there's one guy who's got 65k images and a look into his portfolio reveals he has no photographic skills whatsoever, seriously he walks down the street somehwhere with the thing on motor drive and submits the lot, and he's not alone, there's loads of folks there who have portfolios full of nothing more than snap shots, if you read their posts you'd think they were some of the worlds best photographers but they've no talent at all, yet each month they post how much they've made. So my guess is that Yuri's seen the potential to send these 'students' off on their travels, then hook them up with some models and you've got 10-15 people shooting model released editorial travel shots with Yuris compositional training (and he's very good at composition) and Seans photographic training, get them to sign away the copyright and he's onto a winner IMO - good for him.

Like I say that's my guess, oh and I wasn't trying to insult editorial photographers as a whole, quality always shines through just as in commercial stock.

I think the reality TV thing is just a spin off, Yuri is a master in the art of selling himself and I expect he's sold the idea to a TV company after he came up with the student thing, not the other way round.

Whatever your personal opinion of Yuri and his work nobody can deny the guy is certainly the worlds most successful 'self promoter' even when he doesn't deliberately self promote, and I admire him for that, I wish I had half the marketing skills he has.

Firstly. Please show a good tone in this thread. I know this is a forum, but don't drag this thread down to the lowest level. You may feel this is a threat or that somebody is getting chances you never got, but again.... How many educational programs for young people offer them three years of photography education, traveling the world and to get paid while doing it...? This is unique and it deserves to be acknowledged.
Travel expenses will be paid fully - all three years. The idea is that the candidates we choose will be able to pay 50% for the education through work with real clients and on real shoots. This will off cause not be the case at first where we will have a lot of expenses on this (first year or so). In my eyes, the best practice is in doing. In my opinion, schools have a tendency to become very distant to the real world practice of the subject they are teaching. I spent five years studying psychology and found that i knew nothing of what it meant to be a good psychologist. In this program we try to break with this.

I will address some questions.
Q. Will I be Offered a job after graduation? After graduation of the boot camp or after graduation of the three years? Is the �job� paid?
A. There are two questions here. Yes and yes. The education program is set up in such a way that if you pass the bootcamp you get offered a student position which will be paid (very low). We can pay you because you quite fast will have to work with real clients and real projects.

Q. Is there a specific place we have to stay while we�re in Cape Town?
A. You can stay anywhere in Cape Town. You must just be able to show up at our headquarter every day for classes. The headquarter is located at 79 Roeland Street.

Q. I�d be totally cool with traveling for half the year, but how would the six months be divided? Would it allow for us to have a part-time job for the time we�re not traveling?
A. At LEAST half a year. And those six months you might be in Denmark for three of them, in Australia for two, in Japan for one, etc. But you will be all over the place and must be able to do this.

Q. How many people do you expect to sign up for the boot camp?! 10 or 100? Is there a cap on how many you will let into the boot camp?
A. We expect about 500 applications and will select 100 for bootcamp. Out of those we expect 10-20 to pass for the class. This is elite. Only the best of the best, but don�t let this stop you. The adventure of the bootcamp will be a thing in itself.

Q. It's a 3 years course with no dates defined? Being one semester of classes per year all in random events?
A. This is full time. About 4 weeks of vacation each year. Classes and exams are not ordered in semesters. Some take four weeks, some take a year..some require you to be in another country and do a project.

Q. Will we be shooting stock photography only?
A. Absolutely not. You will be shooting for clients and work on other projects when you are ready.

sounds like it should be called an internship or something like that.

Firstly. Please show a good tone in this thread. I know this is a forum, but don't drag this thread down to the lowest level. You may feel this is a threat or that somebody is getting chances you never got, but again.... How many educational programs for young people offer them three years of photography education, traveling the world and to get paid while doing it...? This is unique and it deserves to be acknowledged.
Travel expenses will be paid fully - all three years. The idea is that the candidates we choose will be able to pay 50% for the education through work with real clients and on real shoots. This will off cause not be the case at first where we will have a lot of expenses on this (first year or so). In my eyes, the best practice is in doing. In my opinion, schools have a tendency to become very distant to the real world practice of the subject they are teaching. I spent five years studying psychology and found that i knew nothing of what it meant to be a good psychologist. In this program we try to break with this.

I will address some questions.
Q. Will I be Offered a job after graduation? After graduation of the boot camp or after graduation of the three years? Is the �job� paid?
A. There are two questions here. Yes and yes. The education program is set up in such a way that if you pass the bootcamp you get offered a student position which will be paid (very low). We can pay you because you quite fast will have to work with real clients and real projects.

Q. Is there a specific place we have to stay while we�re in Cape Town?
A. You can stay anywhere in Cape Town. You must just be able to show up at our headquarter every day for classes. The headquarter is located at 79 Roeland Street.

Q. I�d be totally cool with traveling for half the year, but how would the six months be divided? Would it allow for us to have a part-time job for the time we�re not traveling?
A. At LEAST half a year. And those six months you might be in Denmark for three of them, in Australia for two, in Japan for one, etc. But you will be all over the place and must be able to do this.

Q. How many people do you expect to sign up for the boot camp?! 10 or 100? Is there a cap on how many you will let into the boot camp?
A. We expect about 500 applications and will select 100 for bootcamp. Out of those we expect 10-20 to pass for the class. This is elite. Only the best of the best, but don�t let this stop you. The adventure of the bootcamp will be a thing in itself.

Q. It's a 3 years course with no dates defined? Being one semester of classes per year all in random events?
A. This is full time. About 4 weeks of vacation each year. Classes and exams are not ordered in semesters. Some take four weeks, some take a year..some require you to be in another country and do a project.

Q. Will we be shooting stock photography only?
A. Absolutely not. You will be shooting for clients and work on other projects when you are ready.

So you are reasonably charitable person, and one who thinks running a business should come with a sense of social responsibility, that besides making profit, you should be part of building to a long - term upholdable society?

I thought it was a bit strange saying no photographic experience needed but you need a 16mp camera to take along. I suppose you could rent/borrow one.

I don't feel any threat because my portfolio isn't anything like the Yuri style.  I think this is great for those that want to do this style of photography but I prefer doing my own thing.

I wish Yuri and anyone that goes for this the best of luck.  I really hope the TV show is on a channel I can see in the UK or will be available online.  I watch anything to do with photography, even if it isn't what I like doing.

There's going to be a lot of jealously, everyone gets flack from others on this forum at some point.  It's best to ignore it, I don't think asking people to "show a good tone" will work with some of the regulars here  There's always the ignore button.

The only person that needs to feel threaten is Scott Kelby. Good luck Yuri great idea!

There's no such thing as a free lunch

Actually there is.  I used to volunteer at a homeless and long-term-unemployed charity, teaching work skills, and I was given a free lunch along with the centre's users  

you taught work skills and therefore you got a lunch that's not my definition of free

I think negativity on this forum is a given, unfortunately. out of principle some contributors dislike anything that even smells like a factory, with good reason. regardless, it does seem like an intensive and incredible experience for burgeoning photographers. a hands-on education is so much better than one based on theory alone.

I think it's an awesome idea.

I wish I could apply, but I can't. 

Quote from: gostwyck on September 22, 2011, 07:11

I can't see watching people taking photo's making prime-time viewing.

Mix in some love triangles, backstabbing, distraught models, losers being sent home with dreams crushed and a comic sleezeball or two.  Could work. 

the only thing missing for MSG forum as a reality TV-show must be the Love part.

I'm thinking this can only be bad for all of us

Unfortunately I'm pretty sure you're right, more people watching the show will be motivated to join and contribute to stocksites in the hope they can have the same lifestyle that will be promised in the show (we all now they reality is not shooting beautiful models on exotic beaches but this will be the message of the show)

Quote from: Artemis on September 22, 2011, 16:57

BTW, there is/was a reality show about exactely this. A bunch of photographers were sent out every day to do different assignments, in the evenings got critiqued and followed up by the 'pro jury' and every once inna while someone was sent home because they werent good enough.

any uploads of this show on Youtube or anywhere else would like to see it.

I've only seen one episode awhile ago when i came passed it zapping; but i'm pretty sure it was this show:

The Big Shot 2 Trailer - Reality TV Show

America's next top model for photographers

America's next top model for photographers

Thanks Artemis I think the same. Photography was always a hip profession but it seems that it has become much more hip lately on the other side it has become so much easier technically wise. No doubt competition will grow in the next years and it was always a very competitive profession. Okay back to work now :-).

Hi Yuri,

 All the best to you and your new venture.  Some people are asking if you will make money off this endeavor but isn't that how our system already works?  Schools make money they are a business and their teachers and staff get paid. The student hopes to achieve the ability to take that knowledge and apply it over their own career. Art Center in Pasadena will set you back six figures, is that wrong? They also have the highest placement for high end well paid photographers compared to any other school available, maybe you get what you pay for sometimes. If I was younger and just starting out I would so be all over this kind of opportunity, to learn from the best in a structured environment with real hands on application, marvelous.
 Leaf I feel made a great post as well as Mat both supportive of your efforts to increase your business model.  Once again all the best to you and your future and to the lucky 15 that get the job. I think that will be your most important part of the project, finding the true 15 that have that X factor and can apply what you show them and even take it to another level. I will be watching out for updates please keep us informed of the growth.

All the best,
Jonathan

Yuri is also sponsoring the use of 10 of his camera's to people who cannot afford their own

a Yuri camera, jeez now I am in, cannot wait to hold the number 1 camera, they have some kind of tag? like instead of Nikon a Yuri logo?

booking my flight

Substitue the name Simon Cowell for Yuri and you can figure how this will pan out

Oh no, I can't see Yuri strutting around in Cowell-style high-waisted trousers.  More likely specialised "cargo pants" with an extra long monopod pocket