Fotografie Forum Frankfurt
Braubachstraße 30-32, 60311 Frankfurt am Main
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Lecture
MAX PINCKERS“SPECULATION AND COLLABORATION: DOCUMENTARY PRACTICE BETWEEN TRUTH AND FICTION”
“SPECULATION AND COLLABORATION: DOCUMENTARY PRACTICE BETWEEN TRUTH AND FICTION”
Friday, September 25, 2026, 6 pm
Location: Fotografie Forum Frankfurt
Admission
5 EUR, reduced 3 EUR, for members of the FFF and students with valid ID card admission is free.
People Exiting the Metro at Yonggwang Station, Pyongyang, North Korea, from the series Red Ink, 2018 © Max Pinckers, 2026
Max Pinckers, 2021, © Thomas Nolf, 2026
In his lecture a critically acclaimed artist and photographer Max Pinckers will give a lecture in which he speculates about his own practice in relation to documentary photography.
Known for his conceptual and research-driven practice, Pinckers challenges the conventional boundaries of how truth, fiction, and authorship function within photography. He approaches documentary as both a critical reflection on photography itself and a way of dealing with reality in an attempt to understand it and communicate about it. How can documentary express social concern while at the same time recognize its own shortcomings and blind spots? How can we define a shared sense of realism in a hyper-individual and confusing era of post-truth and fake news in which there is no longer a consensus about what is real half-truth
fiction or entertainment?
The talk will be held in English.
She Will Use the Birds, from the series The Fourth Wall, 2012 © Max Pinckers, 2026
Max Pinckers (*1988, Belgium) grew up in Indonesia, India, Australia and Singapore, and is currently based in Brussels, where he was born. His work challenges the conventions of documentary photography by exploring theatricality, performativity and collaboration within documentary and photojournalism, made visible through the explicit use of cinematic lighting and staging in a documentary context. Photography, for Pinckers, is a speculative gesture that involves more than the mere representation of external realities. His approach to reality and truth is plural and malleable, open to articulation in different ways. His works take shape as self-published artist books and exhibition installations such as The Fourth Wall (2012), Will They Sing Like Raindrops or Leave Me Thirsty (2014), Margins of Excess (2018), Red Ink (2018) and State of Emergency (2024). Amongst the international awards received by Pinckers are the Edward Steichen Award Luxembourg 2015 and the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2018. He has had solo-exhibitions at FOMU Antwerp, Palazzo Madama in Torino, Belfast Exposed, and BOZAR in Brussels, among others, and has participated in over 130 group exhibitions since 2008. He is co-founder of the independent publishing imprint Lyre Press and The School of SpeculativeDocumentary. Pinckers is a Doctor in the Arts and a guest lecturer at the School of Arts/KASK in Ghent, and is represented by Gallery Sofie Van de Velde in Antwerp and Tristan Lund in London.
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.
