Self-Identity
Workshop #3

The workshop was conducted by Max Ernst Stockburger, a documentary photographer, and Jana Ritchie, a guest lecturer and photographer. Ritchie’s work is focused on self-portraits and her family, exploring her identity as a young woman growing up with her single mother and her two sisters. She won the renowned “Gute Aussichten” prize for young German photography in 2021 and has exhibited her works internationally at the photo festivals in Arles, Athens ,and Glasgow.

Stockburger grew up directly next to a U.S. military installation in southern Germany, which has deeply shaped his own photographic work. For more than a decade Stockburger has been working on photography projects dealing themes connected to U.S. society and politics.

Nikon supported this workshop by loaning 10 Nikon Z50 cameras free of charge.

As the attending students were the same as during the second workshop at C/O Berlin, the workshop coordinator Max Ernst Stockburger used the chance to start off the workshop with a short slide show of the previously-created photos. Each group was given five minutes to show and explain their photos. Many of the students directly referred to Lee Friedlander, the American photographer whose show the saw at C/O Berlin, as their inspiration.

After that, Max Ernst Stockburger introduced the class to his body of work “Why Quit Our Own To Stand Upon Foreign Ground?, a photo documentary about the closure of the U.S. American military installation in his hometown Schweinfurt. While showing photos of his work he explained how much the experience of growing up next to the installation has influenced his work and life in general:

”As a kid I remember walking to school with my German friends. We all tried to sound like those American kids from next door. We couldn’t speak a word, but we just imitated the sounds. For me, America has always been a magical place. My fascination with it is what drives my work. I always tell myself this is the last project I’m doing about the U.S., but then there’s always something new that intrigues me. If you want to understand the world we're living in, you have to understand the U.S.”

The students then had time to ask questions about his work and his experience of growing up with Americans.

Following the presentation, the group of students was instructed to go out of the classroom and take a self-portrait with the loan cameras from Nikon. Stockburger advised them to carefully look at how different light situations change the overall atmosphere and look of the image. The self-portrait should then be used as a starting point to create a body of work about themselves and their identities. Central to the project were the questions “Who am I?” and “How have I become this person?”. The students were asked to reflect on how their families and cultural upbringing influenced their personalities. The project then was carried out over the next couple of weeks under the supervision of Steffen Lasch, the class’s art teacher. An excerpt of the results was shown at the final joint exhibition with Duke University.