Registration Page
We are looking forward to welcoming you to the 3rd Essen Symposium for Photography, held from February 4–5, 2026 at SANAA-Building, UNESCO World Heritage Zollverein in Essen, Germany. Please fill out the following form to complete your registration.
Steffen Siegel (D–Essen): Welcome: From Here Where to?
Monica Bravo (USA–Princeton): A Future History of Spatial Photography
Chair: Jakob Schnetz
Bernd Behr (GB–London): A Code Without a Message: Photography’s Topological Turn in the Age of Machine Learning
Chair: Jakob Schnetz
Helen Westgeest (NL–Leiden): Living a Photographic Way of Life in a Mediating Body
Chair: Vera Knippschild
Paul Frosh (ISR–Jerusalem): What Will Become of the Body of Photography?
Chair: Vera Knippschild
André Gunthert (F–Paris): The Accidents of Truth in Photography
Chair: Mona Leinung
Terrence Phearse (USA–New York): Mise en Sein: Photography from Duration to Code
Chair: Mona Leinung
Daniel Rubinstein (GB–London): Photography as Artificial Unconscious: Desire, Sublimation & the Alpha Function
Chair: Francisco Vogel
Cringuta Irina Pelea (ROM–Bukarest): Virtual Human Photography in Japan: When the Photographed Subject Never Existed
Chair: Francisco Vogel
Therese Schuleit (D–Mülheim): From Photocopier to Prompt: The Bureaucratic Image in the Post-Photographic Age
Chair: Dr. Anja Schürmann
Jens Schröter (D–Bonn): Photography and Ghost Imaging
Chair: Franziska Barth
Michelle Henning (GB–Liverpool): Sense and Sensitivity: Speculations on the Future of Photography
Chair: Franziska Barth
Markus Rautzenberg (D–Essen): Conclusion: From Here Where to?
City Hall Essen, Reception with presentation of the Timm Rautert Archive
Unfortunately, all places for this session are already fully booked.
Please get in touch with the event team.
Partners
On behalf of the Essen Center for Photography, the 3rd Essen Symposium for Photography is organized by:
Franziska Barth (Ruhr University Bochum),
Vera Knippschild (Folkwang University of the Arts),
Mona Leinung (Folkwang University of the Arts),
Markus Rautzenberg (Folkwang University of the Arts),
Anja Schürmann (Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) Essen),
Steffen Siegel (Folkwang University of the Arts),
Jakob Schnetz (Folkwang University of the Arts & Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) Essen), and
Francisco Vogel (Folkwang University of the Arts).
Before and after the conference, the partner institutions of the Essen Center for Photography, Krupp Historical Archive, Museum Folkwang, and Ruhr Museum, invite attendees to a varied accompanying program. This will take place on February 3 and 6, 2026. Therefore no registration is required. For more information klick here.