DEICHTORHALLEN HAMBURG and ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS are creating a unique new center for visual media at HAUS DER PHOTOGRAPHIE in Hamburg. The aim is to conduct innovative research and promote media literacy in an accessible way, combining photography, visual and linguistic information with algorithmic structures.
Image above: © photo: Jewgeni Roppel.
Together with the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS, DEICHTORHALLEN HAMBURG is establishing a new center for visual media in the HAUS DER PHOTOGRAPHIE. The center is planned as a place for exchange and debate, artistic and scientific research and production, where the analysis of media phenomena and upheavals that shape society is combined with an innovative exhibition and event program. Workshops, symposia, and lectures are to be held for this purpose. In addition, stimulating educational formats will offer various target groups – especially young people and older adults – low-threshold access to image and media literacy.
The opening of the Center for Visual Media as an independent spatial area in the HAUS DER PHOTOGRAPHIE is planned for 2028. It will form a focal point within the comprehensive educational program on photography at the DEICHTORHALLEN HAMBURG. Collaborations with Hamburg schools, universities, and educational institutions will firmly anchor the center in the city and at the heart of society.
“The new Image and Competence Center at the HAUS DER PHOTOGRAPHIE focuses on the pressing questions of contemporary visual cultures: What significance does photography have in the age of AI, deepfakes, and disinformation? How is the medium—once the model of visual truthfulness—changing under the conditions of digital transformation? The collaboration with our new partner institution, the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS, sends a clear signal: for contemporary education about the visual worlds of the 21st century and for a deeper understanding of their social relevance.” Dr. Dirk Luckow, Director of DEICHTORHALLEN HAMBURG
“A strong democracy needs an informed public – people who question sources, critically evaluate images, and can form their own opinions based on reliable information. The planned competence center addresses precisely this point. We are very pleased to be working with DEICHTORHALLEN HAMBURG to create a unique place in Germany that can and should provide important impetus as a pioneer for Hamburg as a media location, but also far beyond.” Prof. Manuel J. Hartung, Chairman of the Board of ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS
“The focus of our program is on jointly reflecting on our own behavior on ‘social’ media as a cultural and democratic practice and consciously shaping it. With the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS, we have gained a high-quality partner that supports our vision of creating a physical and virtual space for Hamburg that offers a dedicated platform for critical analysis of media phenomena and upheavals in our networked society that shape society.” Nadine Isabelle Henrich, curator of the HAUS DER PHOTOGRAPHIE at the DEICHTORHALLEN HAMBURG
Why the new center? The new role of photographic images in a networked society
In social media in particular, targeted misinformation, manipulated content, and AI-generated images are changing the way we perceive and evaluate information. In the process, the relationship between reality and the medium has undergone a fundamental shift: from the documentation of physical reality to a complex interaction in which networked photography not only depicts social reality but also helps to shape it. Viral photographic images determine attention, communication, and perception.
Especially in times of disinformation, increasing influence, and monopolies of global tech corporations, the ability to “read” images and distinguish fake from reality is essential for self-determined participation in a democratic society. This is precisely where the new Center for Visual Media at DEICHTORHALLEN HAMBURG and the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS comes in. Both share the overarching goal of reflecting on social upheavals, defending an open culture of discussion, and empowering people with very different media usage behaviors to participate self-determinedly in a democratic society.
The Center for Visual Media and the digital platform “Photography Expanded”
Since Nadine Isabelle Henrich took up her post as the new curator in February 2024, the HAUS DER PHOTOGRAPHIE has been focusing more closely on the transformation of the medium of photography. With the exhibition and discourse series Viral Hallucinations, accompanying workshops for young people, symposia for a specialist audience, and a series of booklets with a growing critical glossary and classifying case studies by experts, she is already providing important impetus for the new HAUS DER PHOTOGRAPHIE.
All these initiatives will converge in the new Center for Visual Media. When it opens in early 2028, it will offer a proven educational program with materials and teaching tools tailored to specific target groups, as well as a close network of experts from the fields of art and science. Collaborations with Hamburg schools, universities, and educational institutions will firmly anchor the center in the city and at the heart of society.
Freely accessible and prominently located between the Creative Lab and the main entrance of the HOUSE OF PHOTOGRAPHY, the Center for Visual Media invites collaboration, exchange, and discussion. Workshops, symposia, and lectures will take place here. With its technical equipment and a library containing selected publications on the exhibition program as well as educational materials and tools, the center will become a magnet and meeting place for the public.
An essential part of the concept is the newly created education and research platform “Photography Expanded,” which reflects the center’s work in the digital space. As an image archive and forum for discussion, it will make all developed content—essays, tutorials, videos, artistic projects, teaching materials, etc.—accessible online to an even wider audience. With contemporary visualization and collaboration options, it will also offer various creative and analytical tools.
Collaboration with the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS
Thanks to substantial funding from the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS, the concept developed by DEICHTORHALLEN HAMBURG for the Center for Visual Media can be implemented at a high level. In addition, the foundation is contributing its expertise from various fields of civil society engagement, particularly in the area of news and media literacy, to the overall concept.
As curator of the House of Photography, Nadine Isabelle Henrich will take over the management of the new Center for Visual Media. There will also be an advisory board. The program vision and annual thematic focus of the center will be developed in synergy with the exhibition program and in dialogue with the advisory board.
