Imagine a devout Muslim praying. Many might picture a mosque, prayer rugs, a woman in a headscarf — images we’ve all seen countless times in the media. But what if faith takes place instead in a Berlin park, among passersby, soccer players, and rustling leaves?

Our mental images of religion are often influenced by clichés. The project “Beyond the Frame: Young Perspectives on Diversity in Faith” shows that it can be different. It’s organized by the Neue deutsche Medienmacher*innen, a nationwide network of journalists with and without migration backgrounds that promotes diversity in the media and combats discrimination.

Workshop in Berlin supporting young photojournalists

Since June, young photographers have taken part in workshops led by media professionals, photographers, and representatives of various faith communities. During the practical phase, they portrayed young believers in Berlin — not in studios or staged settings, but in their everyday lives.

Among them was Chiara Lang, a trained photographer who recently completed an internship at the Berliner Morgenpost. For the project, she photographed Maiia, a Jewish woman, in a Berlin subway station.

A selection of the photos will be showcased this fall in a social media campaign and added to the Gesellschaftsbilder image database, which provides editorial teams with discrimination-sensitive visual material for reporting.

We met two of the participating photographers — and one of their portrait subjects — to learn how they became involved in the project and how it has influenced their work.

Luna Afra Evans, 24, student

“I discovered the project Beyond the Frame on Instagram. I’ve been following the Neue deutsche Medienmacher*innen for a while, and when I saw the open call, I immediately thought: this fits perfectly.

Religions in Germany: What Do the Numbers Say?

Germany is religiously diverse — shaped on one hand by the major Christian churches, and on the other by many smaller communities, Muslims, Jews, and people without any organized religious affiliation.

Recent statistics show that by the end of 2023, nearly 18 million people in Germany were members of the Protestant Church, while around 20.3 million belonged to the Catholic Church during the same period. At the same time, the share of those unaffiliated with either of the two major churches continues to grow.

According to figures from the Federal Ministry of the Interior, about 5.5 million Muslims live in Germany — roughly 6.6 percent of the total population. This makes Islam the second-largest religious group in the country after the two major Christian churches.

Religion in Berlin
Berlin reflects this diversity on a smaller scale. According to estimates by the city administration and other institutions, more than 250 religious and philosophical communities are active in the capital.

The two largest groups are the Protestant Church, with around 468,925 members (as of the end of 2023), and the Catholic Church, with about 275,399 members. Combined, this means that only about 20 percent of Berlin’s population belongs to one of the two major Christian churches.

Many faith communities outside Protestantism and Catholicism are not precisely recorded in official statistics — including Muslim congregations, Orthodox churches, free churches, and smaller religious or spiritual groups.

“Photography has been part of my life since my teens, but I’ve only been taking it seriously for about a year and a half. I study political science and philosophy while also attending courses at the Fotozentrum Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and the Ostkreuz School of Photography. There, I learned documentary photography, worked in a darkroom, and collaborated on a project about religion and society.

My work often deals with queer-feminist and social justice issues — photography has become a way to meet people, make stories visible, and process my own experiences. After my mother’s sudden death, taking photos became a way to pause and sort through emotions.

What I find most exciting about Beyond the Frame is the intersection of photography and media ethics. I wasn’t raised religiously, but religion has always interested me — especially because I realized how little I actually know about it, even though it’s so central to many people’s lives. The project creates space to depict faith authentically, free from stereotypes.

In the workshops, we learned how problematic it can be when media outlets illustrate articles about Islamist terrorism with photos of Muslims praying — that kind of imagery distorts reality. Beyond the Frame wants to break these patterns.

For my portrait, I worked with Riv, who is Jewish and queer. We only met once but immediately connected. We walked through Kreuzberg, talked, laughed, and took photos — without a fixed concept or the urge to emphasize symbols. For me, it was important that Riv felt comfortable and could simply be themself. Photography became a form of dialogue, an exercise in building trust.

That’s the strength of this project: creating images that show the diversity of faith in everyday life — and that might inspire a new visual language in the media. I’m especially pleased the photos will be included in the Gesellschaftsbilder database, because that gives them a real chance to be seen and used — beyond the usual stereotypical stock photos.”

Ilona Scherer, 26, student

“I started out interested in fashion photography, but over time my focus shifted. Since studying at the Ostkreuz School of Photography, I’ve been working in an artistic-observational way.

For me, photography means making stories visible — stories that are often overlooked or told one-sidedly. I want to give people a voice without taking over their narrative. That requires trust and genuine exchange. Only then can images emerge that are respectful and show more than clichés.”

What Is Discrimination-Free Visual Language?

Images influence how we think about people and groups. When the same clichés are repeated — the Muslim man on a prayer rug, the woman in a headscarf — they influence our perception, even if they don’t reflect reality.

Discrimination-free visual language means:

- Context matters: Avoid symbolic images that generalize entire groups (e.g., illustrating an article on extremism with praying Muslims).
- Individuals, not stereotypes: Show people’s personalities and everyday lives instead of reducing them to a single characteristic.
- Show diversity: Represent different faiths, genders, ages, and ways of life.
- Empowerment: Portray people respectfully and authentically — without exoticizing or stigmatizing them.

The goal is to deconstruct prejudice and depict society’s diversity as it truly is.

“I learned about Beyond the Frame through an open call. I was immediately drawn to the idea of a discrimination-free visual language. Many images of religion we see in the media are one-dimensional — anonymous praying hands, symbols without context, people reduced to their head coverings. I wanted to be part of a project that creates something different — images that make diversity visible in everyday life.

The person I photographed is Cem, 24, a practicing Muslim who also feels very connected to nature. He often goes to a Berlin park to pray or walk, and meets his cousins there every Sunday to play football. We captured these moments — everyday scenes that show how naturally faith fits into his life.

What I loved most was the relaxed, almost friendly atmosphere that developed. That’s what discrimination-free photography is to me: collaborative images that show people as they truly are.”

Cem: “When You Feel Comfortable, Beautiful Images Emerge”

“My name is Cem Türkkan, I’m 24 years old, an actor — and a Muslim. For me, faith is the path from darkness to light. I had a hole in my heart that only the love of God could fill. Since then, I’ve felt gratitude and humility.

‘Showing faith in its diversity’ — that sounds like an important mission to me. Working with photographer Ilona was wonderful because everything was real. We spent time in the park, talked about God, this world, and the next. I didn’t have to pretend — and that’s what makes the photos special.

I think it’s important to engage seriously with religion — openly, curiously, and without prejudice. If our work encourages people to spend more time in nature, to reflect, or to explore the spiritual side of Islam, then we’ve achieved something.

In the end, I wish for everyone to make good use of the time they have in this world: to embrace their loved ones, to do what fulfills their hearts — and to become the best version of themselves, day by day.”

This article was originally written and published on the 12th of October in German. It was translated in English with the use of Artificial Intelligence.