Prof. Michael Heilgemeir

Camera-based, hybrid and synthetic imaging techniques and post-production. Storytelling, concept development and visual literacy.

Career

Michael Heilgemeir studied Image and Communication (MA) at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (PGCert) at the University of Hertfordshire; he is also a graduate of the State Academy of Photographic Design in Munich. From 2004 onwards, he worked in an interdisciplinary capacity as a freelance photographer and designer for international clients in the editorial and cultural sectors – including a period in London from 2007 to 2019. In 2013, he founded Original&theCopy there as an agency specialising in photography, video and image-based services, which served a wide range of cultural institutions in London.

His projects have received several awards and grants. For instance, his monograph *The Nomadic Studio — Art, Life and the Colonisation of Meanwhile Space* – an exploration of the role of artists’ studios in processes of urban Transformation – was supported by Arts Council England and the DAAD. As co-editor and a member of the artist group ‘Misery Connoisseur’, he was jointly responsible for the art direction of the publication series, which was also funded by Arts Council England.

From 2013 to 2019, Michael Heilgemeir taught as a Lecturer in Photography at the University of Hertfordshire, UK, where he was jointly responsible for the ‘Texts/Cities’ symposium and the journal ‘Writing Visual Culture 6: Between Texts and Cities’. In 2021, following further temporary teaching contracts, he accepted a position as Professor of Media Design at IU International University. There, as Academic Campus Manager, he was responsible for the academic management of the Ulm campus. In the summer semester of 2025, he was appointed Professor of Photography and Staging at the Department of Design at Hochschule München. He regularly collaborates with cultural organisations and other external partners on projects with students.