In my room
the world is beyond my understanding;
But when I walk, I see that it consists
of three or four hills and a cloud.

Wallace Stevens, Of the Surface of Things, 1919

Thomas Kummerow

Born in Hamburg, Germany

1982-1988 Photography / Film-Design studies at University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld. Focus on photojournalism and social documentary photography under Prof. Gottfried Jäger, Prof. Jürgen Heinemann and Prof. Jörg Boström.

Since 1989 Freelance photographer in Germany, Chile, India, Turkey, the US and Spain

1989-1993 Lecturer of Photography at Werkkunstschule Lübeck
Participatory portrait projects with residents and dockworkers in the port of Hamburg

1993-94 Santiago de Chile
Photography and participation
– developing an instrument for project planning with illiterates for the German Development Service
– participatory exhibition project ith local farmers in southern Chile

1995-99 New Delhi, India
1995-1997 Documentation of dialogic communication methods in participatory research for the University of Hohenheim at International Agricultural Research Centre ICRISAT in Rajasthan

1999-2005 Erfurt, Germany
Working for various architectural firms and to the issue of migration / home, Heimat
2000-2005 Lecturer of Photography at University of Applied Sciences Erfurt
2002-2004 Lecturer of Photography at University of Erfurt
2003 Artist in Residence, University of Erfurt

2005-2009 in Istanbul, Turkey
Art and exhibition documentation, urban development and architecture

2010-2015 in Berlin, Germany
Lecturer of Photography at BAU – Bahçeşehir University, Berlin
Lecturer of Photography at University of Europe for Applied Sciences, Berlin

2015-2020 in New York
Gentrification, urban development, religion and architecture

Since 2020 Berlin | Madrid
Homelessness and architecture of the unhoused