Into the Unseen: The Walther Collection catalogue

“What does it mean to view photography from a frame of reference that does not privilege seeing, but rather situates the medium within a more comprehensive multisensory existence? […][T]he answer to these questions lies in a practice that considers photography as a relational, epistemic and material system that does not only reflect our world, but instead, actively participates in it.” —Nadine Isabelle Henrich

“Into the Unseen asserts what some might consider an unorthodox conviction: that engaging photography through the full array of the sensorium fundamentally enriches our understanding of this complex medium.” —Tina M. Campt

We are pleased to announce the publication of the catalogue for Deichtorenhallen’s critically acclaimed exhibition, Into the Unseen: The Walther Collection. The linen-bound volume edited by Tina M. Campt and Nadine Isabelle Henrich is scheduled for publication by Steidl Verlag in March 2026.

Extending the exhibition’s curatorial and conceptual vision, the volume unsettles our understanding photography through a multisensory approach that engages the affective dimensions of this complex medium. The catalog includes an introduction by Artur Walther, essays by Henrich, Campt, and Shawn Michelle Smith, and artistic contributions by Ana María Gómez López and Felipe Romero Beltrán.

Organized into six chapters that correspond to individual sections of the exhibition, the book guides readers through different sensorial encounters with photographic media. “Frequencies of Darkness”, explores darkness as a hinge point between documentation and imagination, psychic and physical space, life and the afterlife. “Holding Everyday Life” focuses on the photo album as a haptic object made to be touched and held. “Listening to the Land” contemplates the physical and ephemeral traces of trauma and resistance in decolonized landscapes. “Tracing Sediments” explores the fragile texture of images that carry physical inscriptions of histories of loss, damage, dispersal,  recovery, and reclamation. “Tasting, Touching, Feeling” focuses of the work of artists who push the boundaries of perception, pain, and social norms. Finally, “Sensing Time” asks us to see, think, and feel change from a non-human perspective. 

“When the familiar becomes strange we must make our way into the unseen and the unfamiliar by relying on different senses to navigate the unknown and ‘make sense’ of that which can and cannot be seen. We must surrender to the touch of an image, how and why it touches and moves us, and what and how it makes us feel.” —Tina M. Campt

The publication will be presented as part of a panel discussion centered on the multisensory dimensions of photography. The panel brings together Felipe Romero Beltrán (artist), Ana María Gómez López (interdisciplinary artist and researcher), Caroline van Courten (Artistic Co-Director of Der Greif), Belinda Grace Gardner (critic), and Nadine Isabelle Henrich (curator) on Sunday, March 15, from 3 to 5 p.m., within the exhibition “Into the Unseen – The Walther Collection” at the Hall for Contemporary Art, Deichtorhallen Hamburg.

Into the Unseen—The Walther Collection curated by Nadine Isabelle Henrich and Tina M. Campt is on view at Deichtorhallen Hamburg until April 26, 2026.

Featuring works by, among others, Cang Xin, Em’kal Eyongakpa, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Santu Mofokeng, Eadweard Muybridge, Jo Ractliffe, RongRong, Berni Searle, and Yang Fudong, as well as a new sound work by photographer Felipe Romero Beltrán and a new installation by artist Ana María Gómez López.