Masterclass for MSU students held as part of Stenin contest

Vladimir Vyatkin, a photo correspondent for RIA Novosti information agency, and Yekaterina Volkova, senior editor at the Visual Projects Service, held a masterclass, Stenin Contest as a Mirror of Contemporary Photojournalism, for students of the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University. During the masterclass, which took place during the exhibition of winning photographs from the Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest, student photographers learned about the contest, discovered which themes and projects capture the interest of the international jury, and received practical tips from Vladimir Vyatkin. They were able not only to view the winners' works but also to ask questions about preparing contest entries. Contest winners Yekaterina Belova and Yevgeny Filippov also participated in the event.

Using Pavel Volkov’s Requiem – the winning entry in the new Energy of Life category – as an example, Vladimir Vyatkin explained to students how visual storytelling is constructed in a photo series and how the author creates meaningful emphasis by using a sequence of images as a visual narrative.

Photographer Yekaterina Belova, an honorable mention recipient in the Portrait. Hero of our Time category, also spoke about how she worked on her project – A Difficult Conversation – for which she met with women who were children during the war, took their portraits, and recorded their recollections. Students showed great interest in the practical aspects of the project – all the inner workings that usually stay behind the scenes: logistics, planning photo shoots, and budgeting.

Yevgeny Filippov told students about his work in sports photography and how exactly he came up with the idea for his winning photo. He also shared practical tips on shooting sports and athletic events. Sports photography often presents challenges for beginning photographers, so students noted that receiving practical advice in this genre from more experienced colleagues was invaluable.

Vladimir Vyatkin commended the exhibition’s design choices. Looking at the individual winning photographs in the My Planet category, he noted that a well-chosen print format allows the images’ depth and meaning to be revealed in a new way. The exhibition space, with its lighting and color accents and dynamic spatial layout, became a platform for creative experiments. During the session, students, under Vladimir Vyatkin’s guidance, tried their hand at portrait photography under challenging lighting conditions and also created their own photo essays.

Yekaterina Volkova highlighted the importance of participating in photo contests, noting that the competition focuses not only on news but also gives a voice to photographers working in sports photography and those interested in environmental protection, culture, and ethnography. Analyzing the winners’ works, she also emphasized how important it is not only to compose a technically sound image but also to fill it with subtext, imagery, and symbols. This is the secret to a successful photograph: the unity and harmony of substance and meaning.