Course Overview

This online course examines the critical relationship between climate change and photography, focusing on how photographers both document environmental change and directly contribute to it. Over four sessions, students will consider the ecological footprint of photographic practices—spanning equipment production, travel, digital data storage, printing, and exhibition—while analyzing how images shape public understanding of climate issues. 

Through lectures, readings, critical discussions, an environmentally-friendlier printing demonstration, project development, and a final critique, the class encourages lower impact digital and analog workflows. Designed for photographers, visual artists, and activists interested in climate change, environmental justice, and sustainable artistic mediums, this course balances theory and real-world practice, offering actionable strategies for environmentally responsible visual storytelling. By the end of the course, students will have a solid framework for a more sustainable, ethically informed practice.

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.

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Gesche Würfel is a visual artist based in New York City. 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). Her work has been exhibited, published, and awarded internationally; exhibition venues include Tate Modern, London (UK), Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (D), David Zwirner, New York (USA), Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) Raleigh, NC (USA); Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC (USA); Goldsmiths Center for Contemporary Art, London (UK); International Center of Photography, New York (USA); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MA (USA), Singapore International Photography Festival (SG). She has over ten years of college-level teaching experience. From 2022 to 2025, she was a Visiting Arts Professor in the Department of Photography & Imaging at NYU Tisch School of the Arts."

Images © Gesche Würfel / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

A minimum of three students is required for all courses to run. In most cases, our registration deadline is 24 hrs prior to the start time of a workshop/class. If there is a workshop/class you would like to register for but it is not listed or if you have questions, please contact griffin@penumbrafoundation.org.

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