To mark the 200th anniversary of photography, C/O Berlin invites you to a diverse, full-day program of events on August 22, during World Photography Day week. Together with guests, the focus will be on 200 years of photography—from one of the first surviving photographs by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce around 1826, through the invention of the smartphone, to the new social uses that have emerged as a result.
Image gallery
C/O Berlin
At the same time, the focus is on the future of the medium:
What role does photography play today? How does it remain relevant? And will it be transformed—or even replaced—by artificial intelligence?
Together with leading figures from the fields of art, photography, media studies, and image theory, we will discuss how our understanding of images is changing in an era shaped by artificial intelligence, digital infrastructures, and an unprecedented flood of images. The focus will be on the history of photography, its role as cultural memory, and its future in the age of algorithmic image production.
The program includes a keynote address by internationally renowned AI researcher and author Kate Crawford, panels featuring international guests such as Florian Ebner, Michelle Henning, Ryan S. Jeffery, Annekathrin Kohout, Susanne Kriemann, Armin Linke, and Steffen Siegel, as well as discussions on the social, political, and ecological implications of new image technologies.
The program is complemented by a workshop led by Bruce Eesly on AI as a tool for artistic intervention, critique, and resistance.
The event concludes with an open-air short film program in the courtyard of the Amerika Haus, featuring works by Bruce Eesly, Ryan S. Jeffery, Gala Hernández López, and Daphné Nan Le Sergent. The selected video works explore the history of AI, its relationship to photography, its environmental footprint, and the growing significance of digital technologies in global geopolitical contexts.
- Admission is free with an exhibition ticket (15/8 euros)
Program
Opening Remarks
Sophia Greiff, Curator and Co-Program Director, C/O Berlin
Keynote
The Metabolism of AI Slop
Kate Crawford . AI researcher and professor, University of Southern California
Opening Remarks
Boaz Levin . Curator and Co-Program Director, C/O Berlin
Language: English
Panel Discussion
Looking Back
- Michelle Henning . Artist and Professor of Photography and Media, University of Liverpool / Susanne Kriemann . Artist and Professor / Ryan S. Jeffrey . Filmmaker and Artist
- Moderator: Steffen Siegel . Professor of Theory and History of Photography, Folkwang University of the Arts
Language: English
Panel Discussion
Looking Forward
Florian Ebner . Chief Curator of the Photography Collection at the Centre Pompidou, Paris / Annekathrin Kohout . Freelance writer and cultural studies scholar / Armin Linke . Artist
Language: German
Workshop
Adversarial Acts: Subversive Artistic Practices with AI
Bruce Eesly . Artist
Language: English
Max. 10 participants, ages 16 and up
Film Screening
Open-Air Short Film Program
- Bruce Eesly: Endangered Gestures (2026), 5 min.
- Daphné Nan Le Sergent: Silicon Islands and War (2025), 37 min.
- Gala Hernández López: Like Moths to Light (2026), 26 min.
- Ryan S. Jeffrey: An Engineer / Not a Camera (2025), 12 min.
Additional information
Dates
August 2026
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