seeing by ear. Essener Gespräche zur Fotografie

A lecture by Therese Schuleit, Curator at Museum of Photocopy, Mülheim/Ruhr

Chair: Dr. Anja Schürmann, KWI – Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities

What if the future of photography is about technical inscription to create responsibility, intervention, and credibility in a world of generative images?

In her lecture, Therese Schuleit positions photocopy as a precursor to generative systems, highlighting the distinction between »image taking« (capturing the world) and »image writing« (bureaucratic, technical inscription). Photocopy, she shows, has historically been tied to verification, control, and accountability, and its material and procedural logic prefigures many challenges of contemporary AI-generated imagery.

Follow the discussion to see how copying practices shaped notions of authenticity, proof, and manipulation in past and presence. What can such a history of photocopy consequently teach us about authorship, trust, and intervention in AI future?

Join the conversation and leave a comment to speculate with Therese and us.

This session was recorded on February 4, 2026, on the occasion of the 3rd Essen Symposium for Photography »What Will Photography Be? An Invitation to Speculate«, hosted by the Essen Center for Photography.

Photo credit: Essen Center for Photography / Silviu Guiman

A lecture by Daniel Rubinstein, Professor Adjunct at the University of South-Eastern Norway

Chair: Francisco Vogel, Folkwang University of the Arts

What if the future of photography means to anchor experience in the world?

In his lecture, Daniel Rubinstein unfolds how photography has historically been grounded in real events. Even manipulated or ideologically shaped photographs operated within a space where truth could still matter. In contrast to this AI-generated images are not just faster cameras, but generated appearances without exposure, risk, or event. From psychoanalytic and political perspectives, Rubinstein explores how AI images disrupt symbolic processing, temporal integration, and relational witnessing, potentially flattening cultural and cognitive experience.

Follow the discussion to consider how the loss of world-reference in images affects judgment, freedom, and social institutions. Can photography endure as a practice of witnessing in an era of images without events?

Join the conversation and leave a comment to speculate with Daniel and us.

This session was recorded on February 4, 2026, on the occasion of the 3rd Essen Symposium for Photography »What Will Photography Be? An Invitation to Speculate«, hosted by the Essen Center for Photography.

Photo credit: Essen Center for Photography / Silviu Guiman

A lecture by Terrence Phearse, Studio Museum in Harlem & Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, Portland

Chair: Mona Leinung, Folkwang University of the Arts

What if the core of photography’s future is about presence, recognition, and political witness?

In his lecture, Terrence Phearse argues that generative AI transforms photography not merely technically nor aesthetically, but ontologically and politically. When images no longer rely on real-world existence, the structures of visibility and acknowledgment – historically vital for Black ontology – are threatened. With various historical biases from Kodak’s Shirley Cards to modern algorithmic misclassifications he demonstrates how code can amplify existing power structures.

Follow this session to explore how images may look photographic but leave no trace of actual events, undermining photography’s promise as evidence. Can photography continue to resist »bad faith« (Sartre) when machines produce mass, context-free images?

Join the conversation and leave a comment to speculate with Terrence and us.

This session was recorded on February 4, 2026, on the occasion of the 3rd Essen Symposium for Photography »What Will Photography Be? An Invitation to Speculate«, hosted by the Essen Center for Photography.

Photo credit: Essen Center of Photography / Silviu Guiman

A lecture by André Gunthert, Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris

Chair: Mona Leinung, Folkwang University of the Arts

What if the future of photography means that photography itself shapes AI more than vice versa?

In his lecture, André Gunthert explains how AI works by statistically remixing photographic, cinematic, and video images, imposing photorealism as a norm – even though it is only one style among many. Comparing today’s debates to past concerns over digital retouching, he notes that skepticism now lingers, partly because AI often produces images with deliberate intent to deceive.

Follow the discussion to explore why the traditional »true vs. false« framework is too narrow, and why fiction must return as a key category, using realistic means without being judged as fraud. How can we cultivate the image literacy needed to navigate trust, fiction, and manipulation in a world of AI-generated visuals?

Join the conversation and leave a comment to speculate with André and us.

This session was recorded on February 4, 2026, on the occasion of the 3rd Essen Symposium for Photography »What Will Photography Be? An Invitation to Speculate«, hosted by the Essen Center for Photography.

Photo credit: Essen Center for Photography / Silviu Guiman

A lecture by Paul Frosh, Professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Chair: Vera Knippschild, Folkwang University of the Arts

What if photography’s future means that core photographic practices will persist despite generative AI?

In his lecture, Paul Frosh outlines three overlapping strands: first, corporeal photography, where gestures, routines, and embodied interaction shape social and political rituals; second, platform photography, where drones, satellites, and stationary systems extend vision beyond the human body for science, surveillance, and activism; and third, generative, body-detached image production, where AI translates photographic knowledge into prompts, producing photorealistic images that imitate rather than replace photography grounded in physical presence.

Follow the discussion to explore questions of labor, value, and authorship, as well as the ethics and politics of proximity, control, and surveillance. What does photography become when bodies, machines, and algorithms intersect and how will these interactions shape the future of seeing?

Join the conversation and leave a comment to speculate with Paul and us.

This session was recorded on February 4, 2026, on the occasion of the 3rd Essen Symposium for Photography »What Will Photography Be? An Invitation to Speculate«, hosted by the Essen Center for Photography.

Photo Credit: Essen Center for Photography / Silviu Guiman

A lecture by Helen Westgeest, Senior University Lecturer at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.

Chair: Vera Knippschild, Folkwang University of the Arts

What if the future of photography lies not just in capturing the past, but in shaping the way we see the world?

In her lecture, Helen Westgeest explores a »photographic way of life«, where perception is increasingly mediated through screens and cameras rather than direct observation. Drawing on Claire Bishop’s concept of »disordered attention«, she considers whether smartphone distraction can also be a relational form of seeing. She then investigates the »mediating body« where eyes and mind archive, interpret, and manipulate images, raising questions about memory, perception, and potential privacy risks in future technologies.

Follow the session to explore how Helen Westgeest situates photography in the evolution of vision, comparing human and animal eyes, and asks whether future images must even remain visual. Is photography still what we think in a world full of sensors and screens?

Join the conversation and leave a comment to speculate with Helen and us.

This session was recorded on February 4, 2026, on the occasion of the 3rd Essen Symposium for Photography »What Will Photography Be? An Invitation to Speculate«, hosted by the Essen Center for Photography.

Photo Credit: Essen Center for Photography / Silviu Guiman

A lecture by Bernd Behr, University of the Arts & Royal College of Art London

Chair: Jakob Schnetz, Folkwang University of the Arts & KWI Essen – Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities

What if photography’s future lies in the autonomous car?

In his lecture, Bernd Behr explores how self-driving systems turn seeing into a media apparatus, where perception, visibility, and misperception collide. From Niépce’s asphalt to today’s vehicle-mounted cameras, he explains how the shift from motor to camera fundamentally changes the way we understand the city.

Follow Bernd’s session to discover how Daimler’s Cityscapes dataset exposes the hidden work behind »ground truth« – from human labeling to the choices that shape machine vision. What happens when humanities-style close reading meets autonomous perception, and what does it reveal about photography, seeing, and urban life in the age of AI?

Join the conversation and leave a comment to speculate with Bernd and us.

This session was recorded on February 4, 2026, on the occasion of the 3rd Essen Symposium for Photography »What Will Photography Be? An Invitation to Speculate«, hosted by the Essen Center for Photography.

Photo Credit: Essen Center for Photography / Silviu Guiman

A lecture by Monica Bravo, Professor in the History of Photography at Princeton University

Chair: Jakob Schnetz, Folkwang University of the Arts & KWI Essen – Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities

What if the future of photography is no longer just about two-dimensional images, but about space?

In her lecture, Monica C. Bravo explores how tools like Apple’s Vision Pro and Spatial Photos on iPhones push photography toward »spatial computing«, blending 3D capture with augmented reality. While spatial photography has a long history, today it challenges photography’s traditional attachment to flat screens, promising new forms of tactility while often amplifying the gap between presence and absence.

Follow this session to see how spatial photography intersects with debates on vision, embodiment, and image surfaces, from critiques of realism to postcolonial challenges to »depth« as a knowledge regime. Is spatial photography still finding its artistic and experiential grammar, while reminding us that, despite new dimensions, it remains photography at its core?

Join the conversation and leave a comment to speculate with Monica and us.

This session was recorded on February 4, 2026, on the occasion of the 3rd Essen Symposium for Photography »What Will Photography Be? An Invitation to Speculate«, hosted by the Essen Center for Photography.

Photo Credit: Essen Center for Photography / Silviu Guiman

Eine Buchvorstellung mit Prof. Dr. Ralf Stremmel (Historisches Archiv Krupp, Essen) und Claudia Parton (Zentrum für Fotografie Essen)

Der Bochumer Verein für Gussstahlfabrikation, gegründet 1842, war eines der größten Industrieunternehmen Deutschlands. Zu seinem industriekulturellen Erbe gehört ein außergewöhnlich umfangreiches und zusammenhängendes fotografisches Archiv, das fast 150 Jahre Industriealltag, Politik und Gesellschaft dokumentiert. Die rund 180.000 Bildeinheiten befinden sich heute im Historischen Archiv Kupp.

Dessen Leiter, Prof. Dr. Ralf Stremmel, hat sich nun vertieft mit dem Zeitraum 1927-1945 beschäftigt und den Band »Mehr als Industriefotografie. Aufnahmen der Fotografen des Bochumer Vereins für Gussstahlfabrikation, 1927-1945« herausgegeben. Anhand 400 ausgewählter Fotografien nimmt er die Werksfotografie als historische Quelle neu in den Blick, indem er nach Lebensläufen, Einstellungen und Arbeitsbedingungen der Fotografen fragt und die Verwendungen der Bilder rekonstruiert.

Ein Gespräch über fotografische Quellenarbeit zwischen Auftragsarbeit, Propaganda, Leerstellen – und dem, was ein Archiv überraschend preisgibt, wenn man es richtig befragt. 

Mehr zum Buch finden Sie mit Klick auf diesen Link.

A Folkwang Photo Talk by Andrew Fisher, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (KWI) Essen (in English)

The Folkwang Photo Talks are a lecture series featuring international scholars and researchers who present and discuss emerging research projects in the field of photography.

This talk frames the topic of sequence in photography with reference to Jacques Ranciere’s claim that politics is at root a contest over the narrative organisation of time. It explores major historical meanings the term sequence has had for photography – centering on the promise that sequencing strategies help make narrative sense of a conflicted world – and sets out to evaluate their continuing relevance and interest through discussion of two artworks: Rabih Mroué’s »Images Mon Amour« (2021) and Lamia Joreige’s »If Not Now When« (2016).

These works use expanded ideas of photography to come to terms with the histories of war and violence that have shaped the artists’ homeland, Lebanon. The talk explores the ways they take up different media and appropriate different historical approaches to critical sequence making, so as to register difficult to make sense of historical and political processes of disruption and elision, loss and catastrophe.