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Application deadline: 30 August 2026, 14:00

200 years ago, reality found a new form in France: a lasting photographic image. Since then, photography has profoundly shaped how societies document, interpret and trust the world around them. From its early claims to objectivity to its mass dissemination through modern media, photography has oscillated between evidence and illusion. Emergence of artificial intelligence marks another decisive shift: images can now be generated without a physical referent, challenging long-held assumptions about authenticity, truth, and visual authority. Century‑old questions around photography persist, yet they take on new connotations in the era of AI: What does a photograph mean when anyone can fabricate one? Who gets to decide what is real? What happens to trust when disinformation travels faster than the truth?

This open call invites photographers, artists, journalists, students, and curious practitioners to join a week of intensive workshop, where you will work closely with international and Hong Kong artists and experts and explore the intersection of images, representations and AI.

Successful applicants will join one of three workshops. The outcomes of all workshops will later be presented publicly in a showcase at the Goethe‑Institut. Participation in the symposium is warmly encouraged, though it is not a prerequisite for the Open Call. You may apply for one or more workshops; however, if you apply for two or all three, the selection committee will make the final decision and assign you to one of the workshops.

About the Project

The Goethe-Institut Hongkong and the French Consulate of Hong Kong are excited to partner with the School of Creative Media of the City University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Press Photographers Association for the project “200 Years of Photography: Images, Representation and AI”, supported by the Franco-German Cultural Fund.

The programme combines three small, intensive workshops with internationally acclaimed mentors, a public showcase of the work-in-progress and conceptual sketches produced during the workshop, and a symposium that opens the conversation to the wider public on an academic level. It is a space for making, thinking, and debating - and for meeting people who take images seriously.

The Workshops

The project is structured around two days of virtual preparation sessions with your mentor, followed by three full days in-person workshop in Hong Kong. Led by two artists and experts from France and Germany and a Hong Kong expert, the workshops will offer complementary approaches to photography: from artistic experimentation to photojournalistic practice.

Workshop A - How can we create images in the age of AI? Anarchives to speculative narratives
Instructor: GWENOLA WAGON (France)

What are the challenges of image-making in the age of artificial intelligence, particularly in relation to the traditions of collage, found footage, and image recycling? These artistic practices, which have proliferated since the circulation and accessibility of images through social networks, giving rise to an aesthetic of low definition and visual reuse, are now experiencing a new phase of expansion while being profoundly transformed by the emergence of generative AI platforms. Building on the book The Pyromaniac Images: Theory-Fiction of Generative AI, as well as the films Chronicles of the Dark Sun, At the Edge of Time, Eyes Wide Open, and other post-internet works, we will examine the status of the archive in the era of false archives (anarchives), the imitation of artistic styles, with the question: What becomes of the photographic image and artistic creation within the imagined future shaped by generative AI?

Workshop B - Machine Images: AI Workshop from Concept to Creation
Instructor: ANDREAS MÜLLER-POHLE (Germany)

Artificial intelligence has conquered the world of images – and flooded it with kitsch, brainrot, and aesthetic debris. At the same time, tools and the pace of their development are multiplying. There is no shortage of image generation options. What is in short supply are ideas.

This is where we want to begin: with the development of concepts. Whether biographical, media-critical, scientific, local, or global – how an idea takes root is up to each participant. We learn to generate ideas in dialogue with AI, to refine them, shape them, and implement them practically.

The result can be a finished work – an image series, a video sequence, a multimedia piece – or an elaborated project sketch, a prototype, or a conceptual draft.

Workshop C - Photojournalism in the Age of AI
Instructor: Hong Kong Press Photographers Association (Hong Kong)

This workshop examines photojournalism's core principles and ethics alongside how artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping the field—from automated editing and image enhancement to profound questions about authenticity, manipulation, and what it means to bear witness. Participants will explore practical fact-checking techniques for identifying AI-generated images, understand the stark differences between human and computer vision, and discover how the very nature of visual truth is being redefined as AI tools become increasingly indistinguishable from reality.

Rather than positioning AI as a replacement for human photojournalism, this session fosters critical engagement with emerging technologies while reinforcing why authentic visual storytelling remains essential in an age where seeing is no longer believing.

Exhibition and Symposium

Work produced during the workshops, such as experiments, sketches, short films, and ideas in progress, will go on public display at the Goethe-Gallery, Goethe-Institut Hongkong in Wanchai, opening on the evening of 12 October. This will be a live snapshot of a week’s thinking: raw, generative, and open to interpretation.

On 13 October, a public symposium at City University of Hong Kong brings the conversation to a wider audience. The symposium will bring together artists, journalists, scholars and experts to address the challenges posed by artificial intelligence and disinformation in contemporary image cultures, fostering dialogue between professional practice, academia, emerging voices, and the wider public.

Schedule

September / October – Online Preparation Sessions
Two virtual sessions with the workshop mentors – an introduction to themes, methods
Dates will be confirmed by the mentors of the workshops

9-11 October – In-Person Workshops
Three intensive workshop days in Hong Kong

12 October – Exhibition Opening
Public showcase of the outcome developed during the workshops at the Goethe-Gallery

13 October – Symposium
Public academic symposium at the City University of Hong Kong

Application Requirement

• Students in photography, journalism, or related fields
• Early-career practitioners and young professionals working with images in any context
• Anyone with a strong interest and some experience in the intersection of photography, AI, and visual culture

Applicants must be at least 18 years old.
Only individual applications will be accepted.

All participants are expected to join the virtual preparation sessions, attend the full three-day in-person workshop, and be present at the exhibition opening on 12 October. Attendance at the symposium on 13 October is strongly encouraged.

Organizers

French Consulate of Hong Kong

Goethe-Institut Hongkong

Hong Kong Press Photographers Association

School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong