In the organizer's words:

Stopover 2026: Folkwang Master's students of photography present themselves with an exhibition and conference

From January 23 to February 8 in the SANAA building on the Folkwang Campus Welterbe Zollverein

"Stopover" brings together current practical and theoretical photographic works by 17 Folkwang students from the Master's degree programs Photography Studies and Practice and Photography Studies and Research.

With an exhibition and conference, they want to arouse curiosity about the diverse ways of engaging with the medium of photography. Among other things, they ask: What happens when photographs are made from wool? What can photography tell us about landscapes, special places and underground rivers? How can traces of lost architecture be made visible? And what significance do archives have in a photographic context? Interested members of the public are invited to discuss their works and working processes. Admission to the exhibition and conference is free of charge.

The "Stopover" exhibition shows current works by Photography Studies and Practice students: Here, photographs meet objects, installations, framings, technical forms of display and spatial challenges.

The opening will take place on January 22 from 6 p.m. in the SANAA building on the Folkwang Campus Welterbe Zollverein (Gelsenkirchener Straße 209, 45309 Essen).

The exhibition will then be open daily from January 23 to February 8 from 12:00 to 18:00. Guided tours are offered on: January 23 at 5 p.m., January 25 at 3 p.m., January 31 at 3 p.m. and February 08 at 3 p.m.

On 23 January, students from the Master's degree course in Photography Studies and Research will be holding the conference "In Perspective - Photographs in an Archival Context". In addition to eight lectures by students, the visual artist Pauline Hafsia M'Barek has also been invited to take part in a panel discussion on the relationship between photographic materiality and the archive.

The student conference "In Perspective - Photographs in an Archival Context" will take place on January 23 from 10:00 to 17:00 in the SANAA building on the Folkwang Campus Welterbe Zollverein.

Students involved in the exhibition and conference: Tabea Borchardt, Leon Düllberg, Jakob Fleischer, Marie-Lise Hofstetter, Hyungyung Jang, Marie Laforge, Melina Lehmacher, Selma Mierl, Leander Mundus, Asli Özcelik, Annika Reinhard, Hannah Schuh, Paula Stilke, Ellena Stelzer, Alexander Tirel, Larissa Zauser and Philip Zietmann.

Notes: The rooms in the SANAA building are barrier-free accessible. The exhibition and the conference are free of charge. No registration is required for the guided tours.