Susann Tischendorf

Susann Tischendorf is a German documentary photographer whose work focuses on human rights, identity, and the environment. A strong focus of her current work is life in rural communities and their importance for resilience building when facing increased migration due to natural hazards, economic instability, and climate change. She also works on the long-term project PRISMS, a collaborative storytelling series about the many layers of identity, migration, and belonging. This topic is very personal to her as she grew up witnessing the impactful transitions in society following the fall of the Berlin Wall. She is a content contributor to FotoEvidence, an international initiative that is focused on documenting social injustice.

She studied audiovisual communications at the University of Arts in Berlin and Sorbonne University in Paris, as well as international relations at Johns Hopkins University in Bologna and Washington, D.C. She was trained in documentary film at Arte TV in Strasbourg. She has worked for international organizations, including the World Bank and the United Nations, documenting and researching on topics of disaster risk management and resilience building in local communities through inclusiveness, focusing on projects in Asia and Africa. For her commitment in volunteering she was rewarded the Silver Honorary Needle of the Federation of Welfare Associations in Germany.

Her works have been exhibited by the International Photographic Society, the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University, fhochdrei galery Berlin, and published by the United Nations and the World Bank Group. She is a member of the Berlin-based photo collective GWS. She was recently selected for the Director’s Grant in Documentary Photography Studies of the International Center for Photography in New York City.

Awards and merit-based grants:
- Director’s Grant in Documentary Photography Studies, International Center for Photography
- World Bank Video SmartLesson Award (first prize in annual video competition)
- Johns Hopkins University (merit-based; full-time tuition for international law studies in the US)
- Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (merit-based; full-time tution for audiovisual arts studies in Germany)
- German Academic Exchange Service (merit-based; grant for documentary film studies in France)