The exhibition “My Framed New World” in Darmstadt questions images and identity
What happens to photography when a photographer decides to stop taking new pictures? Darmstadt artist Florian Albrecht-Schoeck explores this question in his exhibition "MY FRAMED NEW WORLD." From October 31 to December 5, 2026, the Darmstadt Secession will present his work at the Raum für Kunst gallery at Luisenstraße 16. The artist combines classical photography with artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The exhibition opens on Friday, October 30th, at 7 pm. Dr. Katrin Weleda will give an introduction to the works.
When the photographer stops taking photographs
The exhibition begins with an unusual artistic decision: Florian Albrecht-Schoeck has stopped taking new photographs.
However, this does not mean he is turning away from photography. Instead, he is working with an extensive archive of his own photographs, which has been compiled over many years.
His decision also has a political dimension. In light of societal developments and the violence in the world, he no longer wants to simply continue documenting the present photographically. His conscious decision to refrain from taking new photographs thus becomes an artistic statement in itself.
However, the existing images remain the starting point of his work. They are reprocessed, altered, and placed in different contexts.
Artificial intelligence as an artistic tool
Albrecht-Schoeck develops his own technical methods for his new visual worlds. In doing so, he intensively studies machine learning, a method of artificial intelligence in which computer systems learn certain patterns and relationships based on existing data.
The artist uses freely available open-source models, which he further develops for his own questions and trains with photographic material from his archive.
He does not leave image creation entirely to an opaque technical application. Rather, he deliberately shapes the conditions under which new images are created.
Traditional photography also remains part of this process. For example, artificially generated images are transferred to photographic media or photographed again.
Between familiar images and artificial identities
A central motif of the exhibition is the artist himself. Albrecht-Schoeck appears in his works in different forms, ages, and identities.
Sometimes he appears as a man, sometimes as a woman, as a child, an adult, or an old person. He slips into different historical roles and alters his appearance using digital imaging techniques.
In doing so, he raises questions about individuality and identity, but also about the credibility of photographic images.
What can still be deduced about reality from an image if faces, bodies, and entire visual worlds can be artificially created or altered?
Humor, alienation, and the uncanny
The works move between different visual languages and historical styles. Familiar motifs are altered, combined, and placed in new contexts.
This creates images that appear familiar at first glance, but on closer inspection increasingly seem strange.
This phenomenon is reminiscent of the so-called "uncanny valley," where artificially generated images have a disconcerting effect because they come very close to reality without completely matching it.
Besides such unsettling moments, humor, exaggeration, and absurdity also play an important role. The exhibition thus connects technical experiments with social and political issues.
Artists with roots in Darmstadt
Florian Albrecht-Schoeck was born in Darmstadt in 1980. He studied at the Offenbach University of Art and Design and graduated with a diploma in 2014.
Since 2022, he has worked at the university as an artistic assistant in the field of photography. Since 2026, he has also worked as a machine learning expert in a university research project.
His artistic research lies at the intersection of photography, photogrammetry, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
The most important data
What: Exhibition “MY FRAMED NEW WORLD” by Florian Albrecht-Schoeck
When: October 31 to December 5, 2026
Opening: Friday, October 30, 2026, 7 p.m
Introduction: Dr. Katrin Weleda
Where: Space for Art of the Darmstadt Secession, Luisenstraße 16, Darmstadt
Opening hours Thursday and Friday: 4 pm to 7 pm
Opening hours Saturday: 12 pm to 3 pm
Topics: Photography, artificial intelligence, machine learning, identity and visual reality
Organizer: Darmstadt Secession
(DARMSTADT – RED/PM)
