Photography and Ecology
Instructor: Yogan Müller | Tuition: $255 (Members) $300 (Non-Members)
Dates: Sundays, November 3 & 18 | Time: 10 AM - 2 PM | Class Size Max: 8
Course Overview
Photography is a powerful medium for enriching our empathetic connection to the natural world and depicting our devastating environmental footprint. In today's ecological crisis, photography remains essential to grapple with the scale of human impact on the landscape.
This online class, structured as a portfolio review, invites students to present ongoing or completed bodies of work that consider the intersection of photography and ecology. Feedback, lectures, and suggested readings will encourage students to deepen their commitment to ecologically-minded photo projects.
Image 1 © Yogan Müller, Gálgahraun Lava Field, Reykjanes, Iceland, April 2015
Image 2 © Yogan Müller, Kapelluhraun Lava Field, Reykjanes, Iceland, April 2015
Image 3 © Yogan Müller, Gálgahraun, Reykjanes, Iceland, June 2015
Image 4 © Yogan Müller, Kapelluhraun Lava Field, Reykjanes, Iceland, April 2015
Image 5 © Yogan Müller, Krysuvíkurvegur, Reykjanes, Iceland, May 2015
If your desired tuition option is unavailable, please email info@penumbrafoundation.org and we will do our best to accommodate you. If the entire class is sold out, we can add you to the waitlist.
Yogan Müller (he/him) is a photographer and educator whose work engages with the ecological crisis and its impact on landscapes and communities. Yogan works with photography, photogrammetry, drones, the book form, and artificial intelligence to respond to the Anthropocene/Capitalocene. Research, critical approaches to landscape, fieldwork, and design are central to his process. After the unexpected losses of his father in February 2022 and his step-father in June of that same year–both were born and grew up in Algeria, métisse identity, belonging, and fractured roots are themes that came to the fore.
In October 2019, he emigrated to the USA and joined the Counterforce Lab, a group of ecologically-minded artists and designers led by Rebeca Méndez at the UCLA Design Media Arts (DMA) Department. He started teaching at DMA in January 2020. Occasionally, Yogan has worked as a studio assistant for fine art photographer Mona Kuhn, and designer Rebeca Méndez in Los Angeles.
In November 2018, he graduated with a practice-based PhD in Photography from ENSAV La Cambre and Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. He explored how photography made us enter the picture of the Anthropocene and conducted fieldwork in SW Iceland.
Yogan has taught at the University of Bordeaux in France (2009-2010), UCLA Design Media Arts (2020–2024).