teaching

Elke Seeger has been teaching as a professor of photography and conception since 1999, first at the University of Duisburg-Essen and since 2007 at the Folkwang University of the Arts. Since 2017 she has also been acting as Vice Rector for Studies and Teaching. She made her first artistic experiences at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in the Free Graphics class. From 1986 to 1991 she studied free graphics and photography at the University of Essen and finished her studies with distinction. Elke Seeger has been working as a freelance photographer and artist since 1992. Initially, she focused on applied contexts, but in her artistic practice she turned more and more to photography. Her works are represented in the collection of the Düsseldorf Art Academy and the German Bundestag Art Collection, among others. She is also a member of the German Photographic Academy and the Association of Photographers London.

Focus of work:

In the first years of studies Elke Seeger works in the field of Free Graphic. Her abstract works were created in the field of painting on paper, later on canvas, prints, woodcut and lithography. With her studies in Essen she changed to photography. Through a radical and consequent handling of selected set pieces of reality–mainly from nature–she creates further abstracting picture results. In the course of this process of abstraction, Elke Seeger increasingly deals with image generation and with transformational processes of the medium of photography. Aesthetic experiments with materiality, form, color and structure determine her artistic form. The basic conditions of seeing and perceiving, translated into light, space and time, as well as the question of the limits of representationalism form her themes. Beyond the media questioning, references to musical composition and sound are sought.

Educational Area Photography & Concept:

Our present is characterized by an abundance of images encompassing our entire everyday life. Technical media organize our world with images and in images. Thus, our imaginary worlds are more and more dominated by technical images. The research and teaching area of photography and conception therefore seeks a well-founded understanding of photographs and the criteria for their evaluation. Furthermore, theoretical reflection enables an extended, qualified access to photography.

Self-developed concepts and themes, the effort to achieve an adequate visual realization and the demand to ensure this with an appropriate degree of technical perfection determine the everyday life of the students. Imagination and the ability to imagine in vivid thinking form the basis. Especially against the background of the mass access to images, the demand for an independent œuvre is of great importance for the later profession, whether artistic or applied.

The Bachelor seminars cover the wide range of photographic perceptions of reality. One focus is on the representation of the human being, which, due to its special reference to reality, has a special significance within photographic subject areas.
The master seminars attempt to develop and discuss artistic practice and scientific reflection directly on the image. Although the process of image making is in the foreground, it is already accompanied by supplementary texts in the artistic process. As an experimental laboratory, it explores the fundamental question of the extent to which a reflective approach to theory can enrich, inspire and complement artistic practice.
Topics include "photography and temporality," "form and formlessness," "materiality and imagery," "photography and intermediality," "opaque and transparent photography," and "photography and participation".