Thursdays

May 7- 28

6 - 9 PM

Class Size Max: 12

This course examines the relationship between climate change and photography, focusing on how photographers both document environmental change and contribute to it. Over four sessions, students will consider the environmental impact of photographic practices—equipment, materials, print production, travel, digital storage, and exhibition—while analyzing how images shape public understanding of climate issues. Through lectures, readings, case studies, critical discussion, a field trip, an environmentally friendlier printing session, and a project critique, the class encourages more sustainable, ethically informed approaches to visual storytelling in a changing climate.

Open to students of all levels, the course balances theory, critical analysis, and practice, while explicitly addressing environmentally responsible photographic and printing workflows.

$20 materials fee included in tuition

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