From 8.11. to 20.12.2025 always Tue-Sat from 2 pm to 8 pm
BildBotschaft Hamburg is a meeting place for everyone who loves pictures.
Whether curious passers-by, passionate photo fans or media professionals – everyone is welcome at BildBotschaft!
Especially in turbulent times, we need photos more than ever. They touch us, inspire us, amaze us – and also make us think.
That’s why we are celebrating photography together and opposing fakes, disinformation and AI tricks – now more than ever!
Look forward to a varied pop-up program with exciting workshops and lectures, award-winning exhibitions and reportages, street photography and photo contests, free portrait shoots, great prizes and unique gift ideas for all things photography.
We have roughly divided our program into six subject areas:
First of all, here is the exhibition program from 8 to 22 November. The next exhibition weeks will follow shortly.
How do young people see the world? What topics are important to them? How would they tell their stories themselves?
Answers to these questions are provided by the nationwide “Jugend fotografiert Deutschland” competition organized by the non-profit laif foundation.
Participants practise dealing with ideas, research and visual documentation. An understanding of the challenges of photojournalism and the ability to criticize sources are also encouraged.
In the exhibition, we are showing the winning series and a selection from the 2024/25 competition.
Submissions for the current competition are still possible until April 17, 2026. More information at www.jugendfotografiert.org
A selection of high-caliber documentary works shows central stages of German and international contemporary history from the 1980s to the emergence of AI-generated images at the beginning of our decade.
The photographic positions reflect the development of the range and diversity of topics covered by laif photographers. They give the audience an intuitive understanding of the importance of authentic and journalistic photography for democracy.
The analog print exhibition is presented in an award-winning newspaper format. It is supplemented by various digital formats that address social challenges such as social media, artificial intelligence, fake news, disinformation, filter bubbles and the loss of diversity of opinion and freedom of the press.
The internet is considered the most democratic medium of all. Anyone can post, comment and share on an equal footing. And young people in particular use social media to get information, but they also run the risk of falling for false reports, as news is often embellished and manipulated. They often lack the criteria to differentiate between reputable and dubious sources and to assess the credibility of news. On the one hand, this relates to political fake news (false news), which can lead to a loss of diversity of information if disseminated uncritically and can be a threat to democracy, but on the other hand it also relates to very “personal” fake news such as self-promotion on media such as Instagram and TikTok. Users are constantly presented with the image of the perfect person and an exciting life, whether through image editing or cropping out the surroundings.
Participating schools: Charlotte-Paulsen-Gymnasium, Gymnasium Buckhorn, Emilie-Wüstenfeld-Gymnasium, Reformschule Winterhude, Gymnasium Allee, ReBBZ Billstedt (Regionales-Bildungs- und Beratungszentrum)
Coordination of the project: Birgit Hübner, Head of Cultural Education at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg
Project idea and artistic direction: André Lützen
Photographs: André Lützen
Artistic collaboration and realization: Nora Luttmer and Ruth Marie Kröger
The students’ work on the topic of fake news can be seen on the website designed especially for the project:
Seeing the extraordinary in ordinary everyday life and documenting it photographically – that is the art of street photography.
Street photography is an artistic-documentary genre of photography with over 100 years of history. It is an essential part of our contemporary visual memory and shows future generations what unposed life is really like in the present, instead of being staged in the best possible way.
The exhibition shows a selection of humorous and critical motifs on our changing society.
49€ Germany – A working title for a Germany subject
Dr. Britta Kohl-Boas, Oliver Jockers and Bastian Hertel provide an insight into their current work. In the project with the working title “49€ Germany”, the three photographers are embarking on another “Journey to the Germans” using regional public transport.
In the laif foundation’s BildBotschaft, they give a workshop report and explain their collaboration, their way of communicating and the creative process from the idea to the work.
Here is the current status of the planned events. Further dates will follow shortly. There is still a lot in the pipeline…
Every day at 4 pm we organize a photo quiz “Fact or Fake”. The prizes include free portrait shoots in our mini studio.
November 2: Event photography workshop with Christina Cybik
November 4: School workshop: Photojournalism: Is it still important or can it go? With Marco Larousse and Ulf Schmidt-Funke.
(closed event in the Wilhelmsburg district school as part of the 3rd Hamburg Press Freedom Week)
November 8: Reportage photography workshop with Aliona Kardash (fully booked)
November 12 and 13: School workshop at KIDS❤️PHOTOGRAPHY(closed event)
November 22: “New formats” workshop with André Lützen (only for youth picture editors)
November 26: David Klammer: Screening of the documentary Barrikade. –> link
November 29: Photo book day
November 30: Selina Pfrüner workshop:
“Demokratiewerkstatt – Aktiv Zuhören & Bilder lesen” Registrations from November 13 here
December 4: Reporters Without Borders: Alona Struzh on the situation of journalists in Eastern Europe.
December 5: Rafael Heygster and Thomas Victor: Journalistic approach to the AFD. (Discourse event)
December 6: Photo book day
December 11: “hamburger bauhefte” exhibition presentation Markus Dorfmüller –>link
December 13: Photo book day
December 13: “The visual memory of the city of Hamburg” panel talk with Alexander Hagmann et.al; –>link
December 20: Photo book day
December 20: Talk with Aliona Kardash (Aliona Kardas was awarded the World Press Photo Award 2025 in the category “Long Term Project” in Europe.
Further events will be added on an ongoing basis
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.
Generally totally enthusiastic... There are so many people (outside our bubble) who are involved in photography here.
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.
Many thanks to our partners
