►5 min“I recently started selling. From the techniques I learned in the course, which I was not expecting to do.”
Found Martin on YouTube. Had no portfolio. Now selling work.
There is an artist in everyone
You have a good camera. You probably know the settings.
So why is your work technically correct but artistically invisible?
The gap is not talent. It is know-how. A new way of seeing, and it is far easier to learn than you think.
On demand · just over an hour and a half · no cost and no pressure
Already know you want to start? Go straight to Getting Started in Art Photography
Why you are probably here
You hit a ceiling, and instinctively you know it
Almost everyone who joins our Academy arrives saying a version of the same three things.
One
Technically correct. Pretty. Normal.
Sharp, well exposed, nicely composed. And they look like everybody else’s. You cannot work out what is missing.
Two
I am being judged by people who are not artists
In my photography club my work is judged against a rulebook, and very few of them get what I am trying to achieve, emotive photography that moves a person.
Three
A hundred videos, and still very little progress
You have watched more tutorials than you can count. You have been entertained, but nothing much has happened to your photography.
In thirty five years of teaching, Martin has very rarely met somebody who could not be taught.
Talent varies. Everybody has enough to begin with. The only real failure is giving up before you try.
The proof, before the promise
The same photograph, before and after
Not filters, and not presets. Photographic techniques worked by hand, combining the camera with traditional art materials. All three of these were made by students. Click any one to see it properly.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
The man teaching you
Martin Osner
He has not only taught this route, he has walked it. From amateur, to working professional, to art photography, to fine art photography, to a gallery of his own with his work on the walls.
35
Years teaching
25
Years as a fine artist
1993
First college founded
He teaches alongside his daughter Samantha Lee Osner, an accomplished artist in her own right who came through his own courses, and the Academy is run day to day by his co-founder Ralf Armbrüster.
What nobody else is teaching
Everything else has gone digital. This has not.
“I love how tactile it is. I love using my hands and the chemicals and doing transfers. I really appreciate that, especially nowadays because everything has gone digital. I like getting messy.”
Watch Tara’s full interviewWatercolour, acrylic medium, encaustic wax, transfers, powders and photo collage. Martin calls it photo alchemy, and the camera is only one of the tools on the workbench.
What makes this different
We will tell you the truth about your work
Most photography communities exist to hand out applause. That feels lovely and it changes nothing. If applause is what you are after, this is not the place for you, and we would rather you knew now.
What we do not do
- Hand out hearts and thumbs and keep going
- Score your work against a club rulebook
- Leave you to guess what is wrong with it
- Let you post into silence
What we do instead
- Mentor rather than judge, and tell you honestly when work needs to go further
- Nineteen trained creative advisors inside the community, so a post gets a real reply
- Open Mic sessions and creative challenges that keep you actually making work
- A class group of people at exactly the same stage as you
Do not take our word for it
People who were exactly where you are
Three students, three countries, no contact with each other. All three have gone through to Masterclass level. The interviews play here on the page.
►5 min
►8 min“He has given me a new way to appreciate art, and then a way to be a part of it as well.”
Leslie Hoyt
Fifteen years of portrait photography. A good eye, and no way in to art.
►9 min“Maybe the most surprising thing was that I can do it too. That I can make beautiful art as well.”
Lost her creativity over the years, and got it back.
Made by our students
Work that did not exist before the course
Every piece carries its maker, its title and the technique used. Click any one to see it full size, then move through the rest with the arrows.
The one thing to do next
Watch the free masterclass
Getting into Art Photography, with Martin Osner. How a technically correct photograph becomes a picture that moves somebody, and what the route through the Academy actually looks like.
On demand, start whenever you like · just over an hour and a half · no cost and no pressure
Would you rather make something than watch something? Refracted Impression is one technique for $39, and we give the $39 back off Getting Started if you go on.
Ready when you are
Getting Started in Art Photography
The course most people begin with, and the one every student on this page took first. Eight weeks, at your own pace, with the library yours to return to for good.
$690
Eight weeks · self paced · lifetime library access
- Eight structured lessons, released weekly so you have time to make work
- Your own class circle of people starting at the same time
- Five months complimentary access in the Inspire Community, worth $145, included
- Honest feedback from Martin and the creative advisors
Afterwards, and alongside
The Inspire Community
The hardest part of being creative on your own is staying creative on your own. This is the answer to that.
“I am not practising because Martin told me to practise. I am practising because I am really enjoying what I am doing. It seems like some kind of addiction. I cannot stop.”
Watch David’s full interviewTake a course
Five months of complimentary access, worth $145, comes with the art photography courses.
Or join directly
$29 a month, or $290 for the year, if you would rather not take a course yet.
Not ready to watch an hour and a half?
Start with ten minutes instead
Watch the short film, then take the guide that goes with it. Seven Steps Towards Fine Art Photography, the route Martin takes his own students through, written down.
►Watch first: what actually separates photography from art photography