When a company announces its closure, there is usually no single answer that explains that end. And much less a simple explanation that helps understand how one of the oldest and most prestigious schools in photographic training in the country has ended up in bankruptcy.
But what always happens is that beyond the official version and the arguments put forward by the management, there are many other versions. And, above all, people affected by a closure that, yes, everyone agrees in pointing out as inelegant in its ways.
Concentration of students in front of the EFTI headquarters (Photo: Luis de las Alas)Some received a WhatsApp message on Friday night, others read a statement in their email on Saturday morning, but many of us know that they found out directly from the news published by this medium. In total, about 200 people have been affected by the closure.
Although in a way it caught almost no one by surprise and the economic problems were well known for a long time, many students with paid but unfinished courses and collaborating teachers have begun to organize to try to find a solution to the situation of abandonment and defenselessness in the one they have left.
In a statement published by Nailingthe victims claim that “staff workers had been assured that everything would remain the same next year” and that even students had recently been pressured to make pending payments.
We have been able to speak with some of them so that they can tell in first person what happened and how they are experiencing it. In all cases, we have chosen to maintain the anonymity of those who wanted to speak with Photolari and keep their stories literal as they have explained it to us.
Debt and the price of master’s degrees
«I am a student, or at least I was, of the EFTI Fashion Photography Master and one of those affected. The closure is something that we did not expect and we do not understand very well why this has happened. We have now found out that he had a large debt that they cannot solve, but, honestly, seeing the price of the master’s degrees and the money we have invested in them, it is something that we cannot explain.
We already started the master’s degree five or four months late and they told us that, once it started, it could be completed. What emotional management is going to entail now having to reorganize that entire year that you had dedicated to this? The time that, in quotes, you have wasted dedicating time to this without being able to finish it, without being able to take it further. And, above all, the money. Money that I cannot recover or that I cannot reinvest in my studies.
I am especially concerned about the situation of some colleagues from Latin America and the United States, what is going to happen to their visas? I also don’t know what will happen to the workers, to the teachers. I find it more than regrettable the way in which they communicated this to us through a rather tearful e-mail. I understand that the situation is difficult but it seems very inconsiderate to me, to be honest.”
They were letting it die little by little
«I have been a teacher of the professional course for more than ten years. Of course I’m sad that this has ended like this, but it’s something that I could see coming. Since we learned about the financial problems, we have been committed to moving forward with the school, which has been our home for so long.
But we did not see any change in attitude on the part of those responsible. Everything remained the same and there was no interest in improving things. It seemed like they were letting him die little by little.
I think that both employees and teachers have given 100% to our work. And we have also kept a smile until this very Friday, when we found the WhatsApp message. We have trusted the direction of the center until the last moment, believing that we would survive. Or at least if it ended, it would be in a dignified and elegant way. But I never imagined they would do it the way they did. That is not right”.
A newly opened exhibition
«I was doing the Master of Author Photography until the moment the school closed. EFTI has contacted us students twice: first to announce the closure.
Later, in a second email to inform them that until they find a bankruptcy administrator they will be a little on guard, but they tell us that the objective is that students who had already begun their training can continue it in another equivalent institution. Also that certificates will be issued with the hours completed.
Although we already saw it coming and it was discussed at school, we did not expect it to be this imminent and much less that we were not informed in advance. Right now we are organizing to file the respective complaints and also to support each other.
For our part, we had a recently inaugurated exhibition that takes place every year for the students of this same master’s degree, and right now we don’t know what will happen to our works or when we can remove them from the institution.»
They gave us hope saying that the school could be sold
«I have been teaching for about seven years, always as a freelancer as a collaborating teacher. The situation has not been good in recent years economically speaking because there were delays in the payment of bills. Nothing that I considered very alarming, but the situation did get worse, especially last year and even more so starting in January, when they asked us to make a 50% deduction of half of the invoices that they had owed us for months.
It was clear that school was not good, but we still decided to continue. I am a professor of both the Author’s Master and other courses. We were promised that we would be paid month by month from then on, but that has not been the case. The situation has begun to be unsustainable in the last month and a half or two months, when no one at the school is paid anymore and the permanent workers were paid half. Some of us are owed many bills.
Despite this, they gave us a lot of hope that the school could be sold to another university, that we should not worry and that the situation could surely be reversed. Then the message came on Friday night, without any prior meeting with us or anything like that. The truth is that throughout this entire process we have never been asked for our opinion.
Our tutor left weeks ago due to non-payment
«I am a first-year student of the master’s degree. In theory, I enrolled for cinematography, but, due to this economic crisis that they are suffering, the master’s degree became mixed with film direction and scriptwriting, which implied a new study program. Even so, we accept it, grateful to be able to have this mixed discipline.
However, many classes were canceled throughout the course and our tutor left due to non-payment about three weeks ago. It seems like a totally justified reason to me, but we were left helpless. Nor was the school ever clear in explaining why there were no classes.
Now they close without letting us finish the course. We had one year of training left, and now we began all the important practical productions, in which the majority of students were going to be able to direct the photography of our short or direct the short itself. Only three students have been able to do internships. The rest of us have been left without, in addition to all the money invested in the school. “They owe us a whole year.”
