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Abstract
This talk focuses on the environmental impacts of photography (and AI). The audience will hear about the role of image makers in the climate change discourse. Moreover, selected photography projects from students who have taken my Directed Projects: Climate Change class in the Department of Photo & Imaging at NYU Tisch School of the Arts will be presented.
Bio
Gesche Würfel is Visual Artist. She holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA), an MA in Photography and Urban Cultures from Goldsmiths, University of London (UK), and a diploma in Spatial Planning from the Technical University Dortmund (Germany).
Würfel’s research examines urban and natural landscapes from a socio-political perspective. “The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall”, exploring the state of German reunification, was presented at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany, in spring 2022 as a culmination of her artist residency. “Forests in the Anthropocene” visualizes the consequences of human-made climate change and was exhibited at the Tracey Morgan Gallery in Asheville, NC, in 2021. Other exhibition venues include the Tate Modern, the Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the Blue Sky Gallery, the Goldsmiths Center for Contemporary Art in London, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Singapore International Photography Festival, and the Pingyao International Photography Festival.
Würfel formerly taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for seven years. Additionally, she has taught classes and workshops in the U.S., the UK, and Germany, including at the Berlin Summer University of the Arts, Goldsmiths College, and the New York Botanical Garden. While based in London, she worked as the assistant to world-renowned architecture photographer Hélène Binet.
Würfel is the author of The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall (DISTANZ 2025) and Basement Sanctuaries (Schilt Publishing 2014). She is a recipient of numerous grants, including the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Eastern Germany, the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Würfel is represented by Tracey Morgan Gallery.