The renowned British-Egyptian photographer Laura El-Tantawy will take upthe first international short-term guest professorship in photography at the Dresden University of Fine Arts (HfBK) in the summer semester 2023. This professorship is made possible by the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation in cooperation with the Dresden-based association Portraits Hellerau e.V. Laura El-Tantawy will also be appointed to the jury of the PORTRAITS – Hellerau Photography Award 2023.
The common goal of the three partners is to expand artistic teaching at the HfBK Dresden in the field of photography through this new international guest professorship. The existing teaching programme at the HfBK Dresden will be complemented by a project-based workshop for master students and advanced students, which will be led by Laura El-Tantawy. An exhibition in June 2023 in the rooms of the academy will show the students’ works created during the workshop.
Laura El-Tantawy (*1980) dedicates her artistic work primarily to themes that encompass the search for identity, belonging, ecological aspects and social issues. She combines documentary to painterly-abstract photographs with each other. In 2005, she moved to Cairo and started her famous photo book “In the Shadow of the Pyramids” (2015). This deals with the Arab Spring in Cairo from 2011–2013, where she combines old family photos, testimonies, portraits of demonstrators and street scenes. Her works have already received numerous awards; among others, the artist was selected for the shortlist of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2016.
The decision to award the guest professorship was made by a joint jury of the three partner institutions. The workshop and exhibition as well as the inclusion of the guest professor in the jury of the PORTRAITS Hellerau – Photography Award 2023 aims to convey new impulses to the students and to strengthen Dresden as a place for contemporary artistic photography.
