If one thing matters, everything matters.”
(Wolfgang Tillmans)

A photograph is a snapshot of the world, a slice of time, an abstraction of reality. But photography does more than just document—it creates a world through its images and has its own truth. Even the seemingly mundane can become the starting point for photographic work.

How and what can we read in photographs? How do different perspectives arise? What photographic practices are there? What creative and technical tools do I need? Where can I find inspiration, how do I develop ideas and implement them?

In this basic course 2, we will learn about, try out, and deepen our knowledge of two central photographic genres: fashion photography and architectural photography. Through exercises, workshops, and intensive image discussions, we will deepen our understanding of photographic practice and explore photography as a form of thinking and understanding—between history and the future.

In the first half, we will focus on fashion photography and tackle the semester’s main theme of ‘the future’. We will research, seek inspiration, and work experimentally with staging, the body, materials, spatial situations, background, and light. The focus is on image composition, sequence, and rhythm: How do images tell a story in context? How is tension created between individual shots and sequences? The works are dynamically laid out as a fashion spread, and we print a joint magazine that we exhibit at the Bergwerk and as part of the “Future Imag(e)ininig” conference in November.

In the second half of the semester, we will focus on architectural photography and urban space. We will deal with architecture as cultural heritage as well as contemporary buildings and examine how built and urban spaces can be captured and interpreted photographically. In doing so, we will consider different positions in architectural photography and incorporate aspects of the “New Vision” movement, such as unusual perspectives, fragmentation, and working with light and structure, and learn how to work with shift lenses, among other things. At the same time, there will be an opportunity to develop photographic work for a real-world context as part of a specific external request.

Those who wish to do so can also choose the TP Presentation Formats Photography course.
Questions about the course? Meet me in the course selection Zoom on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.:
https://thws-de.zoom-x.de/j/62559226996