make photography

Working at an intersection of artistic and journalistic photography, Azura Silberschmidt centres her practice on the care work of making counter-
narratives visible. Her projects foreground the realities of individuals and communities impacted by forces beyond their control, with a focus on
those historically ignored or silenced, both human and more-than-human. Guided by a humanitarian approach, she has developed a consent and
publishing process that prioritises voice, agency and ethical collaboration throughout all stages of image-making.

Azura Silberschmidt (b. 1997) is an Australian-born Swiss photographic practitioner raised in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Her work investigates ethical
image-making through collaborative, counter-colonial and care-based methodologies, positioning photography as a tool for agency, relationality
and the redefinition of dominant visual narratives. Between 2020 and 2023, during her bachelor’s studies at the Lab HyperWerk, she founded the
Narrative Agency Making Collective, a project appointing experimental self-portraiture to explore themes of identity, heritage and positionality.
In 2023, Azura created Bleiben, a participant-led portrait series developed at a refugee community centre in Greece. Centered on mutual consent
and representation, the work was exhibited in Basel to reclaim civic visibility. Most recently, as part of her Master’s thesis Rainbow Serpent,
Rustling Wind (2023–2025), she examined the colonial legacies of sugarcane industrialisation in her birthplace, Far North Queensland. Through
archival research, contemporary image making and critically fabulated narratives, she analysed the historic images, investigating how photography
can function not only as documentation but also as a means of listening and intervention. Alongside her research, from 2022 to 2025, Azura taught
darkroom and studio photography at the Academy of Art and Design FHNW, Basel. She led workshops on cameraless photography, analogue
development, lighting and storytelling through images. Drawing from cross-cultural perspectives, she guided students through the politics of self-
portraiture, emphasising authorship over performance and encouraged them to critically reexamine their representation on their own terms.
Azura Silberschmidt’s practice proposes photography as a shared space for reflection, resistance and the creation of more pluralistic and
just visual futures.