To what extent can photography help to shed light on and explore the global climate crisis and its impact on society? In what way is it itself involved in this crisis as a consumer of resources? These key questions shaped the Summer Workshop for Photography project, in which twelve students have been developing new artistic photographic works since summer 2024. Their works, which they developed in close contact with local residents in the Oderbruch cultural landscape in Brandenburg, are now being presented at Neuhardenberg Castle: The special exhibition Klimax Klima runs from August 30 to December 21. The twelve students from the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, and the Academy of Fine Arts Munich were accompanied in the project by Prof. Armin Linke, Prof. Heidi Specker, Prof. Tobias Zielony, and Prof. Thomas Weski:
Omid Arabbay explores the mechanisms of social exclusion based on collective fears and everyday attributions. As a supposed »wolf in sheep's clothing«, he spends a night with a flock of sheep, thus performatively approaching the attributions that are often based on fear and projection. In the exhibition, he draws absurd fences across the room—barriers that divide more than they protect and whose function is meaningless.
In her work, Anastasiia Batishcheva asks how the complexity of the Oder landscape can be represented with its historical events, political negotiation processes, and the transience of nature. To this end, she collects various media representations of the Oder landscape and brings them together in an archival piece of furniture in order to reinterpret the landscape in a playful way.
Bjørg Elttør tells a story of failure in her room installation. After visiting the Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide, she spends the night in a hotel. There she begins to write and take photographs. Her attempt to apply for a job at Tesla for her research ended in rejection. How does she deal with this now?
Jonas Fischer documents the work of the Hof Basta farm in the Oderbruch region and paints a picture of the collective life and work of the farmers. Based on his observations, he asks questions about the history and possible futures of the landscape, agriculture, and collective work.
Hannah Francke focuses on the beaver in the Oderbruch, which roams the area like a ghost and becomes a symbol of control, dominance, and unpredictability between humans and nature. The trees in the Oderbruch are marked by gnaw marks on their trunks. Like sculptures, they stand on the shore and point to a presence and an event that we cannot see but can sense.
In her black-and-white photographs, Tatjana Hub allows supposed lightheartedness to tip over into threat and uncertainty. Young faces reflect a subtle danger hidden behind the guise of normality. In the crossfade through glaring sunlight, heat, irritation, and the fragile inkling of an impending change intensify.
Krina Königsmann focuses on the foot-and-mouth disease that broke out among water buffaloes in Hönow in early 2025 and had a significant impact on local agriculture. The disease, which was considered eradicated in Germany, has returned, and the reason for this is unclear. Possible signs indicate that climate change and illegal animal transport could lead to further outbreaks in the future.
Maximilian Koppernock examines the effects of light pollution on nocturnal creatures and their ecosystems, particularly bats, which are considered sensitive bioindicators of climate change. When cities light up, spaces of darkness disappear—and with them, those who depend on them. His installation shows places of retreat that reveal how artificial light disrupts habitats and rhythms. The work understands climate change as a loss of nocturnal and sensory diversity.
Ann-Sophie Krüger asks how one archives a forest. Based on the deforestation of the pine forest for the Tesla Gigafactory in Brandenburg, she documents scientific and photographic attempts to preserve a disappearing natural space. But is the forest even worth preserving? Microscopic wood analyses meet photographic field research.
Zoe Popp's fog installation in the castle park temporarily alters the surroundings, creating a different landscape. The result is an image that no longer quite fits together, a shift that is made tangible and visible. Briefly perceptible, then it's all over again. The play with shifted seasonal phenomena refers to invisible climate-related changes in the landscape that have already taken place.
In his work, Igor Vrdoljak focuses on the individual components and spare parts of cameras and thus on the climate responsibility of the photography industry. In 2023 alone, around 7.2 million digital cameras were produced, all equipped with processors, sensors, camera housings, and main boards made with rare earths. Igor Vrdoljak makes these components visible in the form of photograms, a technique without a camera that is significantly older than photography itself.
Mimi Shudi Yan is developing a climate Jacob's ladder—a kinetic object that visualizes the increasing climate extremes and their consequences for humans as a chain reaction. The tilting movements of the Jacob's ladder symbolize human action as both the cause and the possible solution to the climate crisis.
The summer workshop was organized by the Foundation for Photography and Media Art with the Michael Schmidt Archive and the Joachim Herz Foundation in collaboration with the Neuhardenberg Castle Foundation. It builds on the workshop for photography founded in 1976 by Berlin photographer Michael Schmidt (1945–2014), which accepted participants without any admission requirements. It existed until 1986 and was an influential photography school with a focus on documentary photography.
Guided tours of the exhibition will take place on the following dates:
Sunday, September 14, 4 p.m.
Saturday, October 25, 3 p.m.
Sunday, November 16, 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, December 14, 4 p.m.
