Hamburg Werkstatt Fotografie (HWF) is an educational photography program with a particular emphasis on conceptual documentary methodologies, to produce robust and considered photographic projects. Over a twelve month period students will develop an understanding of theoretical, historical and creative concerns towards contemporary photography, to help inform with the necessary research needed, in the development of a major project.

The core ethos of HWF is to nurture a heightened appreciation and awareness of observational skills and to attempt to comprehend the contradictory nature of photography as a medium that attempts to document reality and yet constructs a fiction based on reality. The sensibility of HWF is a grounded one, to value and integrate the complexity of the dialogue between subjective and objective experience with a personal and social responsibility. A greater understanding of the medium can only be achieved by self recognition with the aim to produce meaningful photography that is honest and not merely superficial.

The guiding principle in the development of the HWF program is an experiential one, as this school of thinking and practice hopes to expand over time. Photographers, curators, writers and editors will be invited to give talks and presentations. Experimental workshops in Hamburg, Berlin and Athens will add to the creative cultivation of ideas and practice.

Swedish photographer, Anders Petersen, is the patron of HWF. It was in Hamburg that Anders began his life as a photographer, documenting the individuals who frequented Cafe Lehmitz, a bar on the Reeperbahn, in the 1970’s. His seminal book, Cafe Lehmitz, 1978, is a testimony to affectionate, yet raw, documentary photography of a personal kind.

HWF is located in the Reeperbahn district of Hamburg with a grand view of the River Elbe.