Six days in Luxembourg to think bigger about your work —
June 29 – July 4 · CNA Dudelange · 6–8 participants · English
What it is
The Vision Lab is a hands-on week for professional photographers, filmmakers, journalists, artists, and storytellers who want to develop their practice beyond traditional limits — reach new audiences, build a sustainable media practice, and initiate change.
We cover a lot of ground: alternative publishing strategies, grant writing, expert status, personal brand, the long tail of a project, and publication bridges that let a single body of work live in print, online, on stage, in exhibitions, schools, or public spaces.
But what participants consistently tell me matters most isn’t the curriculum. It’s who is in the room. Six to eight people from different disciplines, working on very different projects, getting close to each other’s questions. You come out with clarity, concrete next steps, and a small group of peers who keep showing up for you.
The Vision Lab has been the catalyst for my long-term project Move She Does. Through Uwe’s focused, sincere, heartfelt, and constructive guidance, it transformed from an energetic seed into a clear, structured, and powerful project. And the mapping we created still hangs on my wall, ingrained in my mind—always ready for review.
Trui Hanoulle, photographer, graphic designer, storyteller, writer
Who it’s for
- You have a project you can’t quite get off the ground. You know what you want to make; you don’t yet know how to fund it, structure it, or carry it through to audiences beyond a single magazine spread.
- You’re at a turning point. You’re successful by most measures, but you want your next chapter to feel different. More meaningful, more sustainable, more yours.
- You want to reconnect to why you started. The craft still matters to you. You’re looking for a week of serious thinking with people who take the work as seriously as you do.
Before the Vision Lab, our ‘Home’ project was merely an idea. The workshop helped us structure and frame it, offering new angles and very tangible, actionable goals. We later pivoted to a funded documentary film. The confidence and tools we gained at the Lab were what made that possible.
Aleks & Andrzej Wisniewski, Documentary filmmakers, Peryferie Magazine
Who leads it
Uwe H. Martin is an artist, visual storyteller, slow journalist, and teacher. Since 2007, he and his partner, Frauke Huber, have documented global agriculture’s social and environmental consequences in LandRush, a project that has taken the form of magazine features, exhibitions, multichannel installations, linear web documentaries, artist books, participatory mappings, and performances.
Uwe co-founded the international art and research project World of Matter; Aggrey’s Dream, which supports a school in Mombasa, Kenya, with four teachers, a school lunch program, and a bakery that generates independent income for the school; RiffReporter, Germany’s largest author-owned journalism cooperative; and Transformation Journalism, which explores how storytellers can become agents of eco-social change.
He teaches photography, film, journalism, and planet-centric design at universities and workshops worldwide, and lives between Schlehdorf in Bavaria and Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea, where he is building a research campus for teams working on the water-food-energy-climate nexus.
Your attention and empathy have been incredibly valuable to me. Thank you for your honest words, your feedback, and your questions that always hit the nail on the head, even if they aren’t always easy to answer. Thank you for creating a space where everyday life didn’t matter at all for a week and where the only thing that mattered was being there. You are someone who truly sees people. I don’t think there are many people I’d want to listen to for hours on end for seven days straight. With you, it’s no problem at all.
Jessica Prinz, journalist and filmmaker
Program at a glance
Day 1: Vision. Ideas.
Reaching audiences: Media. Spaces. Live.
First pitch of your idea and questions
Positioning
Day 2: Benefit. Meaning.
Innovative and transformative projects
Why do you do it?
Project work
Day 3: Perfect Intro & Universal Question
Funding projects
Perfect Intro & Universal Question
Project work
Day 4: Rich & Famous
Pitching ideas
Grant writing
Cooperation & networking
Project work
Day 5: Free. Independent. Change Agent.
The long tail & publication bridges
Journalist – expert – change maker
Project work
Day 6: Presentation & Starting the Journey
Final presentation
Next steps & getting started
You really have a knack for talking to people on their level, no matter where they are in their careers. In addition to all the professional insights, I learned a lot about myself, how to treat people with respect, and how much a kind word can mean.
Jana Mengede, landscape and wildlife photographer
Practical
Dates: 29th June – 4th July 2026
Location: Centre national de l’audiovisuel. 1B, rue du Centenaire. L-3475 Dudelange
Audience: Professional photographers, professional filmmakers, writers, journalists, artists, and photography/audiovisual students.
Languages: English
Prices:
- Normal: 300€
- Reduced: 150€ (students, jobseekers, intermittent entertainment workers, self-employed professional artists, on presentation of documentary evidence)
Max. number of participants: 8
Terms of enrolment: Please send your application, including a short description of your questions and what you would like to achieve, your biography, and links to your work, to: formation@cna.etat.lu and contact@uwehmartin.de
Deadline for applications: May 30, 2026
For further information:
formation@cna.etat.lu and contact@uwehmartin.de
T. : Mylène Carrière : +352 52 24 24 702
formation@cna.etat.lu and contact@uwehmartin.de
T. : Mylène Carrière : +352 52 24 24 702
T. : Uwe H. Martin : +49 177 45 51 423