"In the name of the circumstances - Reportages on exclusion, power and everyday life" is the title of the exhibition currently on display in front of the ASH Berlin Audimax. On display are photographic works by students on the Bachelor of Social Work course. The photographs are the results of a two-semester seminar on "Critical Social Reportage and Social Photography" in the 6th and 7th semesters.
The works are dedicated to socially relevant topics such as social exclusion, power relations and everyday realities - and combine documentary practice with critical socio-pedagogical analysis. The focus is on subjective perspectives, photographic explorations and the search for hidden meanings behind the visible. The exhibition is an invitation to look, question and reflect.
About the seminar "Critical social reportage and social photography"
The aim of the seminar was to explore social phenomena with socio-educational relevance over a longer period of time through research, in particular through photography. The students developed their own questions and selected topics that they associate with social work in the broadest sense and worked on these using qualitative and aesthetic methods. The methods used included ethnographic observations, interviews, document analyses and social photographic explorations.
The framework for the seminar was an approach that combined elements of ethnography, social reportage and critical photography. The students dealt with theoretical approaches from ethnomethodology and practice theory and learned to understand social reality not as given, but as constructed, contradictory and in need of interpretation.
In the first semester, the focus was on approach, theory building and developing our own initial research ideas. As a group, we visited exhibitions in Berlin together, such as "Voices of the Street - Perspectives of Homeless and Homeless People" at the Willy Brandt House, the exhibition "Orangery of Welfare" at the New Society for Fine Arts and the "Topography of Terror". A critical examination of image power and propaganda - based on Leni Riefenstahl's work, for example - was also part of the joint work.
In the second semester, the focus was on independent photo projects. The students deepened their research using visual approaches, developing image series and texts that document their findings and at the same time invite discussion. The process was accompanied by collective image discussions, thematic inputs and external impulses from the field of journalism.
All projects were created individually and are now being shown to the public. The exhibition is a symbolic expression of research-based learning that focuses on critical subjectivity, social responsibility and creative approaches.
