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Performing Arts, Creative Arts and Design

My Personal Retrotopia: Working with Memory in a 4-Day Photo Workshop

When:

26 August - 29 August 2025

School:

Berlin Summer University of the Arts

Institution:

Berlin University of the Arts

City:

Berlin

Country:

Germany

Language:

English

Credits:

1 EC

Fee:

490 EUR

Interested?
My Personal Retrotopia: Working with Memory in a 4-Day Photo Workshop

About

This workshop is designed for anyone interested in combining photography with themes of memory, identity, history, and time. A variety of assignments will guide you in discovering and telling your personal stories through photography, and create your own photo series.

Using Zygmunt Bauman's concept of "Retrotopia" as a foundation, we will explore how personal memories can be creatively reinterpreted through photography.

The 4-day workshop blends hands-on photography with photo analysis and discussions around theory. In addition to creating your own photo series, you'll develop skills in analyzing, reading, and discussing photographs. You will be encouraged to explore your personal history through images, capturing the essence of memories that shape your identity. We will look at the work of a number of contemporary and historical artists, and throughout the course, a variety of assignments will guide you in discovering and telling your personal stories through photography.

Collaborative exercises between participants, along with short writing assignments, will enhance the creative process. We will also examine the work of contemporary photographers who explore memory, offering fresh perspectives on how the past can inspire new visual narratives.

Together, we will address aesthetic, practical, and conceptual questions, such as: How does memory shape our identity? How can we visually represent the passage of time? How can photography help us reinterpret the past? By the end of the workshop, participants will have developed a cohesive photo series, blending the personal with the universal, and learned how to use photography as a tool for storytelling and self-exploration.

Course leader

Carla Åhlander

Target group

No photographic experience is needed

Fee info

Fee

490 EUR

Interested?

When:

26 August - 29 August 2025

School:

Berlin Summer University of the Arts

Institution:

Berlin University of the Arts

Language:

English

Credits:

1 EC

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