Fotografie Forum Frankfurt
Braubachstraße 30-32, 60311 Frankfurt am Main
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TAWADA YUKI“WHEN TRACES ALTER REALITY”
“WHEN TRACES ALTER REALITY”
Die transformative Verbindung zwischen Fotografie und Berührung
Die transformative Verbindung zwischen Fotografie und Berührung
Saturday/Sunday,
September 06/07, 10 am–5 pm
Workshop Content
Introduction to experiencing the photograph as object. How is time observed in photography. Alternative processes with photography, sculpture and video. Open discussion. Touch as the Beginning of Narrative. Collaborative working.
Workshop Schedule
Saturday, September 6, 2025: Meet at 10 am. Topic: Touch as the Beginning of Narrative. Creating Imaginary Time. After an introduction by the artist participants will produce work together and display it for a group discussion.
Sunday, Septeber 07, 2025: Meet at 10 am. Topic: Traces That Open Memory and Reality. Weaving Invisible Bonds. Introduction to Japanese photographers exploring the materiality of photography. After an introduction by the artist participants will produce work together and display it for discussion.
Location
Fotografie Forum Frankfurt
Braubachstrasse 30-32
60311 Frankfurt am Main
Tawada Yuki, © 2025
Language: English
Price members: 450 EUR
Price non members: 550 EUR
Number of participants: min. 6 / max. 8
Registration deadline: August 3rd, 2025
Duration: 2 days
Tawada Yuki, a participating artist in the current FFF exhibition, “I’m So Happy You Are Here, Japanese Women Photography 1950 to Now” is internationally known for her multifarious approach to photography. For the FFF Academy she will lead a workshop based upon the idea of the transformational emerging between photography and touch. Tawada will help the participants think about photography in ways they most likely have never considered. Unusual representations of photographic praxis will be discussed and created in the class.
Her approach: “Photography is not a finished image, but an open medium—one through which we relate to an ever-shifting reality. It is not about recording what is, but engaging with what is becoming. To touch an image—by scratching, folding, burning—is not an act of preservation, but a way of choosing the shape of forgetting.
These gestures disturb linear time, allowing memory, emotion, and mythic presence to surface.The trace becomes a threshold through which new narratives emerge—fluidly crossing between reality and fiction, between interior and exterior worlds.
In an era where AI generates images that simulate reality with increasing precision, hand-based photographic practices offer something fundamentally different: a tactile, intuitive, and embodied way of knowing. AI and physical intervention are not in conflict. Rather, they coexist as distinct yet parallel responses to shared questions:
What is reality? What do we ask of the image now?
To leave a trace is not to close the image, but to open it—to invite transformation, reinterpretation, and a reimagining of what remains.
Installation view of Seeing as though touching: Contemporary Japanese Photography vol.19. Courtesy of Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, photo: © INOUE Sayuki, 2025
Tawada Yuki (born in Hamamatsu, 1978) uses photography as well as sculpture and video in her work. She attended Tōhoku University, where she majored in biochemistry. She fell in love with photography as part of her university and graduate studies. After studying at the University of California, Santa Barbara, she continued her studies in Japan and at Camberwell College of Arts, part of the University of the Arts London. There, she developed an interest in the physicality of photography and the potential for working with its surface. Tawada engages with the themes of spirituality and healing, using innovative methods such as scraping and burning the surfaces of her photographs or creating sculptural installations with lacelike cutouts of photographs. Through mesmerizing immersive installations, she translates the deep spirituality of her work into physical experiences for viewers. Tawada currently teaches photography and video at Kyoto University of the Arts.
Sign up here for workshop with Tawada Yuki:
For this event the access is limited and a previous registration is necessary.
After the submission of your data we will send you a confirmation by e-mail. This e-mail also includes the bank information for the transfer of the workshop fee. Your payment should reach our account fourteen days before the start of the workshop and is necessary for the participation. In the event of your absence without prior notice of at least 14 days we can unfortunately not refund the fee of the workshop.
With your registration you will confirm that you have read and understood the PRIVACY POLICY of Fotografie Forum Frankfurt.
Do not hesitate to contact us by e-mail at anmeldung@fffrankfurt.org or telephone at +49 (0) 69 291726 if you have any questions regarding workshop schedule, registration or payment.
Thank you for your registration. We will contact you shortly.
FOTOGRAFIE FORUM FRANKFURT
The Fotografie Forum Frankfurt (FFF) is one of the leading centres of photography in Europe. As an exhibition space, institution and event forum the FFF deals with all types and aspects of photography. Since its founding in 1984 it has presented more than 300 exhibitions with historic and contemporary artists. Additionally, the programme of the FFF comprises of regular workshops, talks and discussions with internationally renowned photographers, artists and experts.
