Werkstatt Berlin was founded in 2023 and is a space dedicated to the appreciation, knowledge, questioning and creative development of documentary + art photography and visual culture. Werkstatt Berlin offers education, exhibitions and events and through these opens a forum for dialogue about the powerful impact of photography on our complex societies. Michael Grieve is the founder and director of Werkstatt Berlin and Werkstatt Editions.

Werkstatt Berlin organises three education programs:

1. Michael Grieve, Patricia Morosan & Calin Kruse teach a 12 month program with monthly weekend seminars, in which participating photographers develop a practical project, beginning with small assignments, and gain knowledge and inspiration from invited guest lecturers.

2. Magnum photographer Mark Power teaches a 9 month program, comprising of 3 physical workshops, designed to help photographers initiate projects and guiding them on the right path. NOW COMPLETED. AN EXHIBITION OF THE WORK MADE DURING THIS PROGRAM WILL TAKE PLACE IN BERLIN 2026.

3. Magnum photographer Rafal Milach will teach a 6-month program entitled Photography as Social Practice; a program to engage in developing visual responses to the increasingly unstable political and environmental contemporary situation.

Werkstatt Berlin organises workshops:

1. Michael Grieve will teach a 4-day workshop 19-22 February.

2. Laia Abril will teach a 5-day workshop 23-27 April.

Werkstatt Editions is a new publishing house and will begin with The Institution Trilogy by Anders Petersen in 2026.

Werkstatt Residency in Umbria, Italy, begins in 2026. Program coming soon.

Werkstatt Berlin Galerie presents a space for the range and diversity of photography, both past and present. Since 2023 the gallery has exhibited Anders Petersen, JH Engström, Bertien van Manen, Michael Grieve, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Ute Mahler & Werner Mahler, Axel Beyer, Paolo Pellegrin. Our inaugural exhibition was the seminal work, Cafe Lehmitz (1978), photographs concentrated in a bar on the Reeperbahn in the early 70’s by Swedish photographer, Anders Petersen. Werkstatt Berlin is honoured to have Anders Petersen as a patron. His honest, sensitive and grounded approach to life via photography is the very essence of what Werkstatt Berlin stands for.

Cover foto: A Second of Quiet, Michael Grieve