Museum Folkwang presents the six best final projects of the Master's programme Photography Studies and Practice

With Photography Masters, Museum Folkwang is showing selected final works by graduates of the Photography Studies and Practice master's programme at the Folkwang University of the Arts. In their works, the six positions negotiate different modes of presentation and techniques of photography and thus unite a broad spectrum of current reflection on the medium.

With Photography Masters, the Folkwang University of the Arts and Museum Folkwang are continuing their successful collaboration, which began in April 2016 with the Stopover exhibition series. The institutions are thus establishing an important platform for young artists who are still at the beginning of their careers. The works presented by Lea Fleck, Xiaole Ju, Elena Kruglova, Ardelle Schneider, Samuel Solazzo and Anna Traskalik(ová) show a wide range of artistic and media-based explorations in the expanded field of photography. All participating artists have successfully completed their studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts in September 2023. A four-member jury (Kerstin Meincke, temporary Academic Councillor, Institute for Art and Art Science, University of Duisburg-Essen, Prof. Elke Seeger, Prof. Dr Steffen Siegel, both Folkwang University of the Arts, Thomas Seelig, Head of the Photographic Collection of Museum Folkwang) selected what they considered to be the best Master's degrees for this exhibition during the Folkwang Finale graduation exhibition (autumn 2023, SANAA building on the Folkwang Campus Welterbe Zollverein).

Lea Fleck (*1993) explores the medium in an installative exhibition format and traces the current role of youth in society in sensitive still lifes and portraits. Xiaole Ju (*1986) examines the clichéd image motif of the flower in his subjective work. A foray through the Ruhr region resulted in black-and-white photographs, which are exhibited on the wall in the classic manner in this exhibition. In contrast, Elena Kruglova (*1990) moves away from the traditional presentation of photography and sometimes allows it to take on an object-like form as a carpet. In doing so, she explores the appearance of image manipulation. In her photo book, Ardelle Schneider (*1994) provides an intimate insight into her family history and deals with the question of black identity. Samuel Solazzo (*1993) works with collected and found materials for his installations, in which he uses his archaeological approach to open up new worlds and contexts. In Anna Traskalik(ová)'s expansive installation, new arrangements of images emerge cyclically, stimulating questions about current modes of perception and representation of digital images.

At the same time, Museum Folkwang is presenting a selection of around 40 photographs from the Stuttgart photographer's oeuvre in the exhibition Wolf D. Harhammer. Two Realities (9 February - 26 May 2024). Harhammer's world is that of showmen, artists, acrobats and clowns. In the mid-1970s, he photographed people who had sought their place in the microcosm of circuses and fairgrounds. Here his photographs enter into dialogue with other works from the Photographic Collection.
 

Information

PHOTOGRAPHY MASTERS
Folkwang University of the Arts
9 February – 26 May 2024
Opening: Thurs, 8 February 2024, 11 a.m.

Free Admission