Research, development, exchange of ideas - laif foundation for independent photojournalism

We regularly work together with universities and various specialist departments to share our experience and gain new impetus on our core topics.

Here are a few of the current collaborations:

Visual Editors

We accompany a semester project by Miriam Zlobinski and her students from the Information Design class at the UdK Berlin on change and impact through photojournalistic images.

What is real?

Students from the Bern/Biel University of Applied Sciences were guests at Publix with Gunnar Krüger and Rikus Hillmann and interviewed us about photojournalism and the concept of authenticity in images.

Strategies against the disappearance of local photojournalism

Together with students of Prof. Dr. Matthias Künzler at the Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, we are thinking about strategies to counteract the impending disappearance of local photojournalism. Several working groups will be researching sub-aspects of this topic in the winter semester 2024/25.

https://www.polsoz.fu-berlin.de/kommwiss/index.html

At the invitation of Prof. Henrik Spohler, we will be discussing with experts at HTW Berlin on January 15, 2025 how photo-like AI-generated images are changing our relationship to reality.

On the panel:

Gesine Born (Head of Bildinstitut, photographer, AI user),
Boris Eldagsen (photographer, AI user, member of the German Photographic Academy),
Dagmar Schwelle (photographer, board member of the professional association for photojournalists FREELENS e.V., member of the German Photo Council),
Sven Ehmann (laif foundation)

Students at the University of Fribourg (Department of Communication Sciences and Media Research) are studying the use of immersive technologies and narrative formats to better convey photojournalistic content in a joint Master’s program with the University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons.

In dialog with the laif foundation and laif photographers, they are developing prototypical approaches that could increase both the appreciation of and willingness to pay for photojournalism.