EFTI was born as a school in 1987 with the only purpose of teaching photography and promoting all the activities related with it.
EFTI is located on Fuenterrabía Street, Madrid. Its 3,000 sq metres are entirely dedicated to photography. Our purpose has always been to create a living space where teaching combines with exhibitions and numerous activities related to the photographic image. Our facilities include six sets, four lecture rooms, four digital labs, one lab and one darkroom and a library holding more than 2,500 volumes on photography, art, and image.
Our experience during these years has placed EFTI as one of the most prestigious Photography Centres in Europe. Currently our Masters Programme is considered to be the best course among Spanish-speaking countries. We have had more than 13,000 students from 60 different countries enrolled in our different programmes.
Institutions such as the National Museum Queen Sofía, International News Agency EFE, the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture, National Library and other official organisms have trusted EFTI for the formation of their teaching staff.
Our teachers are and have been some of the best professionals in the medium: photographers, artists and experts in image analysis. All of them have an extended professional career, with international exhibitions that prove their knowledge and experience. In some cases we can talk of more than 30 years of dedication to photography and a demonstrated teaching capacity. Among them are the names of: Javier Vallhonrat (National Photography Prize 1995), Cristina García Rodero (National Photography Prize 1996), Humberto Rivas (National Photography Prize 1997), Joan Fontcuberta (National Photography Prize 1998), Alberto García Alix (National Photography Prize 1999), Chema Madoz (National Photography Prize 2000), Toni Catany (National Photography Prize 2001), Ramón Massats (National Photography Prize 2004) Ouka Leele, (National Photography Prize 2005), Manuel Vilariño (National Photography Prize 2007) Alfonso Zubiaga, Antoine d’Agata, Bernard Plossu, Ciuco Gutiérrez, Chris Anderson, Daniel Cánogar, David Allan Harvey, Denis Darzacq, Eduardo Momeñe, Eugenio Ampudia, Eugenio Recuenco, Gervasio Sánchez, Guillaume Reynaud, Guy Tillim, Hellen Van Meene, Isabel Muñoz, James Casebere, Jane Evelyn Atwood, Jaques Olivar, Jaume de Laiguana, Jean Christian Boucart, Jesús Micó, Jill Greenberg, Jorge Salgado, Jose María Mellado, J.M. Castro Prieto, Lynne Cohen, Marcos López, Mary Ellen Mark, Matt Siber, Miguel Oriola, Miguel Reveriego, Peter Marlow, Rosângela Rennó, Sabine Villiard, Samantha Appleton, Santiago Lyon, Simon Norfolk, Stuart Franklin, Tino Soriano, Txema Salvans,…
EFTI combines its teaching activity with a clear aim to propagating Photography. An important number of visitors come regularly to our exhibition rooms, where exhibitions are held on a monthly basis. Our galleries have featured the work of: the editions of World Press Photo 1999, 2000 and 2002, Sebastiâo Salgado, Robert Doisneau, Steve McCurry, Julia Margaret Cameron, Mary Ellen Mark, Willy Ronis, Isabel Muñoz, Paolo Pellegrín, Matías Costa, Miguel Oriola, Alberto García Alix, Carlos de Andrés, Miguel Trillo, Martín Chambi, Raghu Rai, Alberto Schommer, Linda Connor, Guy le Querrec, Colectiva Fotógrafos españoles: Chema Madoz, Ouka Leele, Ciuco Gutierrez, J.L. Santalla, J.M.Navia, etc.
Our philosophy is to promote the work of well-known artists while we give the opportunity to emerging artists in the gallery called “Space OFF”. We do not have any commercial interests and all the exhibition benefits go to the artist.
EFTI owns a private collection of photographs that has been growing during the past years with the donation and purchase of works. Nowadays, this collection consists of 300 photographs.
EFTI has been an Apple official teaching centre since the academic year 2007/2008.
EFTI makes a call for “Roberto Villagraz scholarships” annually. These grants are meant to foster the study of photography. The last edition received nearly 1744 works from artists from 51 different countries.
In 2009 EFTI opened Cero Gallery which presents itself as a space dedicated to photography, and it gives special emphasis to the pursuit and promotion of new values.
Assuming the difficulties of the market of photographic work, Cero Gallery aims to provide a program that through individual and collective exhibitions of the photographic fact, understood in all its breadth and diversity, can be contextualized and also better appreciated.
Since its beginnings, EFTI has always been co-managed by Agustín Pérez de Guzmán Ballester and José Luis Amores García. They have been working in collaboration with a big team of people, whose effort and dedication make EFTI possible today.
