École nationale supérieure de la photographie

Mentorship Programme 2025

With 40 years of experience in education in image making and artist training, the École nationale supérieure de la photographie, opened its international mentorship programme in 2022.

The programme is for artists or photographers having developed and consolidated an image based practice over several years and wishing to benefit from in-depth support for their approach to contemporary questions relating to the image, and more specifically to photography.

Starting from a review of your professional career and your artistic practice, you will be guided around five months, through individual follow-ups, critical sessions and group sessions, to question your approach, to develop your ongoing creative project and to enhance your practical realisations (production of texts, editing, research and documentation, project structuring). The exchange of ideas and the sharing of appropriate methodological advice will enable you to build a better foundation for your practice and strengthen your position as an artist-author. In a horizontal work dynamic, the ENSP mentorship programme aims to help you update your commitment to the challenges of the contemporary image.

The 2025 edition of the mentorship programme will be led by two mentors: Sergio Valenzuela-Escobedo and SMITH, artists from the world of art and contemporary photography with both national and international recognition.

Sergio Valenzuela-Escobedo and SMITH are artists, researchers and exhibition curators, and in the course of their indisciplinary work they explore the relationship between humans and their environment, their roots and their future, and their alliances with the more-than-human and with the invisible. Their works offer perspectives that allow us to glimpse other ways of making the world, incorporating a reflection on the knowledge, techniques and spirituality through which societies are shaped and reconfigured. They are as interested in traditional photographic practices as they are in post-photographic techniques that incorporate AI or VR creation, as well as questions relating to the materiality of images.

Presentations by other image professionals will complement and enrich the guidance offered by the mentors.

Objectives

The educational objectives of the mentorship programme are :

  • to develop a critical distance from your artistic practice and research, in the light of contemporary issues relating to images and photography
  • to deepen the development of your practice, and consider new perspectives on visual and theoretical research in line with your project
  • to optimize the implementation of a creative project in progress, from its structuring to the promotion of its achievements
  • to strengthen your position as an artist-author and boost your professional career
Programme

The 2024 mentorship programme combines a period in person at the ENSP Arles alongside online meetings, providing a specific space for work, exchange and reflection over a five-month period. Participants will benefit from personalized support in a group or individual setting.

  • First face-to-face session at the ENSP: from the 25th of February to the 7th of March 2025

    • Presentation of projects and feedback session with mentors

    • Thematic research in relation to your artistic work

    • Tutored and independent research and documentation time in the ENSP library

    • Structuring an artist-author project 

  • Online group feedback sessions with mentors 

  • Individual online project follow-up meetings with mentors 

  • Second face-to-face session at the ENSP from the 3rd to the 4th of July 2025

    • Review of project progress with mentors 

    • Meetings with professionals

Prerequisites

This programme is open to everyone, with no obligation to have previously attended an art school. As a public administrative institution, the ENSP is committed to preventing any direct or indirect discrimination in its recruitment and selection processes.

Candidates need to :

  • Demonstrate a committed artistic practice (at least 5 years of activity) in any discipline with an interest in images
  • Show proof of experience in disseminating your work (exhibitions, publications, etc.)
  • Have an ongoing creative project
  • Have good oral comprehension of French and English
Dates and venue
  • From the 25th of February to the 4th of July 2025 
  • Face-to-face sessions at the ENSP : from the 25th of February to the 7th of March 2025 and from the 3rd to the 4th of July 2025 
  • Online learning sessions and meetings (dates to be agreed)
Applications

The deadline for applications is the 3rd of November 2024.

Applications should be sent to : contactmentorat@ensp-arles.fr

Please send a pdf file containing the following documents, which may be written in French or English:

  • a covering letter setting out your expectations of the course

  • a presentation of the artistic project for which you are requesting mentorship

  • a portfolio of your artistic work (maximum size 10 MB)

  • curriculum vitae including your contact details

  • copy of your passport or national identity card

Programme costs and possible financial aid
The cost of the programme is 3200€ (inc VAT)

The Mentorship programme does not lead to a Diploma, however it is eligible for funding for professional training for participants who have acquired training rights in France. We can offer funding advice to those in this category.

Anyone who has acquired training rights in France can request partial coverage of the cost of training through their personal training account (CPF) or from their OPCO (AFDAS for photographic authors).