BildBotschaft Hamburg
Encounter and exchange through photography
Democracy needs solidarity, dialog, curiosity, respect and the willingness to tolerate different perspectives.
Photography enables this dialog. It appeals, invites, opens up perspectives, encourages reactions, creates encounters and exchange.
As a physical location for this, we have opened an attractive, inviting space that attracts very different social groups – the BildBotschaft Hamburg.
In cooperation with the real estate company Tishman Speyer, Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft provided us with the Satellit, Hamburg’s urban showcase for the creative industries, from the beginning of November until Christmas. In a perfect location, at the entrance to the central shopping street, right next to the main railway station.
At the BildBotschaft Hamburg, we have created a space for dialog – through exhibitions, participatory journalism and educational work.
The project consists of three elements:
Support us!
Join us and support us with a financial donation or become a sponsor with your company.
The laif foundation is a non-profit organization and your contributions are tax-deductible.
The JugendBildredaktion is one of the central components of BildBotschaft. It will be tested as a co-creation lab in a six-month prototype phase in Hamburg from November 2025.
Young people aged 14-21 work under the guidance of photojournalists and in cooperation with other organizations on the development and photographic implementation of local and socially relevant topics.
The results are presented to a wide audience as a public photo panorama in exhibitions, workshops and dialog events in order to bring people into exchange and discourse and to make new, young perspectives visible.
What problems are we tackling
We all move around in our information and filter bubbles. Social media in particular continuously reinforce this effect.
And so we unlearn the ability to engage in personal, respectful dialog about general, but especially important and critical issues with people who disagree, who have different ideas and needs.
We are losing cohesion and a shared perception of reality and desirable visions of the future.
With the BildBotschaft Hamburg, we are creating a place that invites people to engage in constructive dialog across society using a variety of photos
In times when Instagram, TikTok and YouTube characterize our visual communication and information intake, professional, visual reporting on local topics hardly takes place anymore.
With the decline in local media, the images, topics and perspectives that would enable our shared perception of what is happening in our living environment are also disappearing.
The photos from the JugendBildRedaktion and other visual editorial projects form the basis for this constructive dialog in the BildBotschaft.
Together with the young people from the JugendBild editorial team, we develop workshops with methods and content for their generation that specifically address topics selected by them, such as social cohesion, participation, climate change, diversity or sustainability, and carry them out at schools.
In a nutshell
Become a corporate sponsor
With your help, the image of Hamburg will be diverse, life in the city will be worth seeing and the dialog between people from different parts of society will be constructive. You and your company can now help to implement the innovative BildBotschaft project.
It’s worth it – for Hamburg, for the people and for you.
We offer you exclusive events, workshops and lectures for you and your employees, inspiring photo series for your business and office premises, services and projects for image cultivation, customer acquisition/retention or employer branding.
Are you looking for young talent and interested in how your company can better reach this generation with images and stories? Become an image ambassador!
The JugendBild editorial team tells authentic stories from your company, portrays trainees and shows career opportunities. We show the best photos in the BildBotschaft and you can use them at your own events or job fairs.
In this way, you present yourself as an attractive employer and come into contact with the target group of tomorrow in an innovative way.
Do you want to make your commitment to Hamburg, democracy, education, youth and society visible? Become a BildBotschafter:in!
Support an innovative dialog project at the heart of society. Important topics in the city are made visible from different perspectives in the BildBotschaft. With workshops and meeting formats, we invite people to talk and at the same time provide impetus against fake news, social polarization and youth frustration.
In this way, you as a company are taking a stand and making a targeted investment in a strong, democratic local civil society.
Do you want to make your location more attractive or better known? Become an ImageAmbassador!
BildBotschaft Hamburg shows both professional photography and unconventional perspectives on local topics. Bring this diversity of Hamburg to your company. With exhibitions, workshops or exclusive events for customers and employees, we offer exciting content with social relevance.
Whether office, sales area or production – the BildBotschaft photos offer a variety of communication opportunities for networking with employees and customers.
This allows you to use the power of images for your communication in the central image message and in your own rooms.
BildBotschaften soon throughout Germany
Photos have superpowers. They reach us directly and get us talking to each other. We want to use these forces to bring different people in our society together and contribute to the consolidation of our democracy.
That’s why we want to make BildBotschaften possible throughout Germany.
How? The video shows
Contact us for further information and individual sponsorship or cooperation opportunities at
Or donate directly here:
What others say
In times where the discourse is quite divergent and there is only black and white, it's super important that more people engage with more topics. It's great that we're taking our work out of the photojournalistic context and putting it back on the streets.
Generally totally enthusiastic... There are so many people (outside our bubble) who are involved in photography here.
Totally positive, I'm surprised that so many people came and are still coming. I like the pop-up style, I find it likeable and uncomplicated.
Many thanks to our partners
