Summer School Course THE THINKING IMAGE: Photography as Visual Language by Christina Dimitriadis

In an age where images are constantly produced and shared through smartphones and digital platforms, photography has become a universal form of communication. Yet the ability to take photographs does not automatically lead to meaningful images. What distinguishes a photograph from the endless flow of images that surrounds us today?

THE THINKING IMAGE: Photography as Visual Language explores how photographs can move beyond simple documentation and become a form of visual thinking. The course focuses on the development of photographic awareness, experimentation, and editing as key elements in shaping a personal visual language.

Throughout this five-day summer school, participants will engage in a combination of visual lectures, practical exercises, and collective discussions. Working with cameras or smartphones, they will explore observation, composition, and experimentation in image-making while reflecting on how intention, chance, and perception influence the photographic process.

Participants will develop a photographic project based on a personal theme or question and will produce new images throughout the week. Through editing and sequencing sessions, these images will be shaped into a small photographic series.

Participants will also be introduced to basic digital image editing using Adobe Photoshop. The session will focus on essential techniques for refining photographic images, including cropping, tonal adjustment, contrast, and color correction. These tools will be approached as part of the creative process through which photographers shape the final image.

By the end of the course, each participant will have created a coherent photographic sequence of 5–8 images reflecting their emerging visual language and approach to photography. (Text & photos by courtesy of Christina Dimitriadis)

Day 1
9:30 AM Reception at the BAI

Morning Session: Seeing and Observation

To begin the summer school week, Christina Dimitriadis will present an overview of her artistic practice and her work with photography as a medium for exploring social environments, identity, and visual perception. This introduction will situate the workshop within a broader artistic context and introduce key ideas that will guide the week.

The opening lecture will focus on photography as a form of visual language. In an age where images circulate continuously through digital platforms, the session will examine how photographers move beyond simple documentation to create images that communicate meaning. Artistic references from contemporary photography will be discussed in order to explore how observation, framing, and context shape the photograph.

Following the lecture and discussion, participants will take part in a practical exercise focused on slow observation. Working individually in the surrounding area of the institute, participants will produce a first series of photographs that respond to their immediate environment.

Afternoon Session: First Image Review

In the afternoon, participants will return to the studio and present a first selection of images from the morning exercise. The group will discuss the photographs collectively, focusing on questions of composition, perspective, and visual intention.

This session introduces participants to the process of editing and reflecting on their own images, which will remain an important component throughout the workshop.

Day 2

Morning Session: Encounter and Environment

The morning lecture will explore photography as a way of encountering place and environment. The session will present artistic examples that address urban space, everyday life, and the relationship between individuals and their surroundings.

The lecture will last approximately 30–40 minutes and will be followed by a group discussion focusing on strategies for photographing environments and observing spatial relationships.

Participants will then begin a practical exercise in the surrounding neighbourhood, focusing on the observation of architecture, atmosphere, and traces of social life within the urban landscape.

Afternoon Session: Photographing the Social Environment

In the afternoon session, participants will continue their photographic exploration of the environment. The aim is to develop a series of images that move beyond documentation and begin to suggest a visual narrative.

At the end of the session, a short review will allow participants to present selected images and discuss their observations with the group.

Day 3

Morning Session: Self and Representation

The morning lecture will focus on self-representation and visual identity in contemporary photography. Through examples of artists who have explored the relationship between photographer, subject, and self-image, the lecture will examine how identity can be constructed and questioned through photographic practice.

After the lecture and discussion, participants will begin a photographic exercise exploring the relationship between the self and the surrounding environment. They will experiment with perspective, framing, light, and gesture in order to develop visual strategies for representing presence and identity within the image.

Afternoon Session: Experimentation and Image Development

In the afternoon, participants will continue working on their photographic material. The session encourages experimentation and allows participants to refine the conceptual direction of their projects.

Participants will begin selecting and organising their images in preparation for the editing process that will take place later in the week.

Day 5

Morning Session: Final Editing

Participants will complete the editing and selection of their photographic material and finalise their photographic series. The session will focus on refining the visual coherence of each project and preparing the images for presentation.

Afternoon Session: Presentations and Group Critique

The workshop will conclude with presentations of the photographic series created during the week. Each participant will present a sequence of 5–8 images, followed by a group discussion reflecting on the development of the work.

This final session provides an opportunity to reflect on the creative process and to discuss how the ideas and strategies explored during the workshop might continue to inform future photographic projects.