Artist Statement
A significant part of my artistic practice involves walking through forests, meadows, and mountainous landscapes. These walks are not merely physical movements but open-ended explorations of more-than-human worlds. In these environments, I encounter a dense web of relations that challenges conventional perception and exceeds human-centered categories of knowledge. Photography, in this context, becomes a threshold – an opening into dimensions of life and agency that often remain hidden or inaudible within anthropocentric frames of sensing. I see the camera not as a tool of representation, but as a medium of correspondence – a way to initiate a visual dialogue between human and nonhuman presences.
My images aim to unsettle habitual coordinates of seeing. I work with perceptual spaces where distinctions begin to blur: between what is recognized and what remains unacknowledged, between animate and seemingly inert forms, between presence and withdrawal. These images do not clarify but complicate – they invite attention beyond categorization and open spaces for resonance, ambiguity, and doubt. Drawing on speculative aesthetics and posthumanist thought, I seek to create visual situations that challenge anthropocentric narratives and propose a more open, relational understanding of the world.
Rather than documenting ecological crisis, my work engages with photographic speculation – a mode of visual inquiry that explores how images can make space for the more-than-human to appear, not as object, but as co-actor in shared existence.
Biography
Working at the intersection of visual art, photography, and research, Martin Tscholl (b. 1983) explores ecological entanglements and posthuman perspectives through image-based inquiry. He studied fine art photography at the Ostkreuzschule Berlin with Ludwig Rauch (2017–2019) and in the Masterclass program (2020–2023). Holding an M.A. in Visual and Media Anthropology, he is currently a PhD candidate in artistic research at SINTA (Studies in the Arts), University of Bern, and an artistic researcher at the Natural History Museum in Berlin. His work explores aesthetic experience as a mode of ecological sensitivity and has been exhibited and awarded internationally, including at Copenhagen Photo Festival, Fotofestival Lenzburg, Encontros da Imagem Braga, and Fresh Eyes Photo Fair Amsterdam.
Exhibitions/presentations
2024 Book Presentation "Imaginary Ecologies", Paris Photo
2024 Forest Vortex - Im Sog des Waldes, Fotogalerie Friedrichshain, Berlin. Curator: Thomas Stanka
2024 Anthropocene: Before, Still and Tomorrow, Braga, Portugal. Curator: Vítor Nieves
2023 Kunstraum Potsdam, Masterclass Ludwig Rauch
2022 Photopia, Hamburg
2022 Fotogipfel Oberstdorf, Kunsthaus Villa Jaus
2020 Photo Kyiv, International Photography Fair
2020 Social and Distance, Torstrasse 111 - Forum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin
2020 Armenia Art Fair, Yerevan
2020 Fresh Eyes Photo Fair, Amsterdam
2020 International Photography Festival FestFoto, Ibere Camargo Museum, Porto Alegre
2020 International Photography Festival Encontros Da Imagem, Braga
2019 The Independent Photographer, Talents Of The Year 2019, Fifty dots Gallery, Barcelona
2019 The Censored Exhibition, Copenhagen Photo Festival
2019 Suche nach Schönheit, Fotofestival Lenzburg
2019 Abstract, The SE Center for Photography
2019 Vom Kopf zum Bild und zurück, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin
2018 Die Unwiderlegbarkeit der Behauptung, Torstrasse 111 - Forum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin
Awards & Nominations
2023 Emergentes 2023 - International Photography Award Encontros da Imagem, Braga: Finalist
2021 Profitfoto New Talent Award 20/21: Winner - 2nd Prize
2020 Athen Photofestival: Shortlist
2020 Fresh Eyes, GUP Magazine: Emerging Talent
2020 Kolga Tbilisi Photo 2020: Shortlist
2020 International Photography Festival FestFoto, Porto Alegre: Finalist
2020 Aesthetica Art Prize: Longlist
2019 Emergentes 2019 - International Photography Award Encontros da Imagem, Braga: Finalist
2019 International Photography Grant - Category Landscape: Nominee
2019 Barcelona International Photography Awards : Nominee
2019 Athen Photofestival: Shortlist
2019 Fine Art Photography Award - Category Landscape: Nominee
2019 The Independent Photographer - Color Photography Award 2019: Winner - 3rd Prize
Publications
2021 Profifoto Nr. 7-8 - Feature
2020 Analog Magazine - Feature and Interview
2020 Fresh Eyes - The best 100 emerging photography talent from Europe - powered by GUP Magazine
2020 Future Now - 100 Contemporary Artists from the Aesthetica Art Price
2019 Competitions Awards - Talents of the year 2018/2019 - The Independent Photographer
2019 Copenhagen Photo Festival Event Auction Catalogue - Bruun Rasmussen, Auctioneers of Fine Art
Academic Publications & Presentations
Talks & Presentations
2025
Photography as More-than-Human Inquiry – On Visual Thinking in Artistic Research Resonance, 16th International Conference on Artistic Research, Society of Artistic Research (SAR), University of Porto, May 7–9, 2025 (planned)
2022
Imagining the Nonhuman – Visual Practices and Knowledge Production in Urban Biodiversity Research
Rethinking Sustainability through Applied Anthropology, 10th Conference of the Italian Society of Applied Anthropology (SIAA), Verona, December 14–17, 2022
2022
Photography and the Nonhuman
Caught in the Crisis? Doing Audio-Visual Ethnography in Times of Crisis, AG Visual Anthropology, CFP Interim Conference, Münster, October 28–29, 2022
2018
Picturing Nature – On Analyzing Images of Urban Natures in Digital Environments
Embedded Digitalities, Conference on Digital Anthropology (organized by the German Society for Empirical Cultural Studies and the Swiss Society for Folklore Studies), Basel, April 5–7, 2018
Selected Academic Publications
2025 (forthcoming)
Tscholl, Martin. Ökologien bildlich denken. Fotografische Praktiken zwischen Imagination und Wirklichkeit. In: Michael Schäuble & Thomas Gartmann
(eds.), Studies in the Arts – Neue Perspektiven auf Forschung über, in und durch Kunst und Design, Bielefeld: transcript.
2025 (forthcoming)
Tscholl, Martin & Ulrike Sturm. Artistic Research. In: Handbuch Partizipation in der Wissenschaft,
Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
2024
Tscholl, Martin. Imaginary Ecologies. Breda: The Eriskay Connection. ISBN: 978-94-93148-60-9
eriskayconnection.com/imaginary-ecologies
2022
Tscholl, Martin & Ulrike Sturm. Posting Nature: A Critical Perspective on Analysing Cultural Ecosystem Services on Instagram. Journal of Environmental Media, 3(2).
2022
Tscholl, Martin, Maike Weißpflug, Marco Wedel & Ulrike Sturm. People and Nature – Fostering Inter- and Transdisciplinary Collaboration for Biodiversity
and Sustainable Human Interactions. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 35(3): 367–369.
2022
Tscholl, Martin, Maike Weißpflug, Marco Wedel & Ulrike Sturm (eds.). Special Issue: People and Nature. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 35(3)
Artist Residency
2021 Mountain Residency Program of Photographic Research at Verzasca Photo
