Salzburg, Austria - This exhibition at the MdM Mönchsberg presents almost the entire FOTOGRAFIS collection which was provided to the MdM Salzburg as permanent loan by Bank Austria and integrated into the MdM’s photographic collection in July 2008. The FOTOGRAFIS collection, established in 1976, is one of the earliest and most outstanding photographic collections in Europe. In 1987 it was presented temporarily at the Rupertinum and now it returns to Salzburg. On exhibition at the MdM Mönchsberg  through 26 October, 2009.

This unique collection of international and historical photography spans the period from the beginning of photography as an art form until the 1970s. The earliest items of the collection are photographs from the 1840s made by William Henry-Fox Talbot, the “inventor of photography”, David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson. „There are few things I know in the field of science that are more amazing than the gradual appearance of a picture on a white sheet”, Talbot wrote in 1841, summarizing the atmosphere of change that prevailed during the pioneer era of this new medium. Travel photographs by Francis Frith and Maxime du Camp and chronophotography by Eadweard Muybridge also occupy a prominent place in the FOTOGRAFIS collection.

As photographers began to apply pictorial techniques similar to impressionist painting around 1900, the boundaries between photography and painting began to blur. Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Steichen and Heinrich Kühn are representatives of pictorialism within the FOTOGRAFIS collection. In the 1920s Paul Strand and Edward Westin started a new chapter of art photography with the introduction of “straight photography” which focuses on the intrinsic value of photography. During the same period avantgardist artists, in particular Dadaists and Constructivists, radically expanded the possibilities of photography: Works by Man Ray, Alexander Rodtschenko, Raoul Hausmann and László Moholy-Nagy are highlights of the exhibition. Reportage-style and social-documentary photographs by artists ranging from Weegee to Diane Arbus play a prominent role in the history of photography of the 20th century. Contemporary works by Austrian artists. among others by Valie Export and Arnulf Rainer, complete the profile of the collection.

With the integration of the Collection FOTOGRAFIS Bank Austria the MdM Salzburg has been able to establish a new focal point that perfectly complements its own large collection of contemporary Austrian photography. This is the first comprehensive presentation to the general public since the collection’s integratioStooss and contributionsn into the MdM.

Curator: Dr. Margit Zuckriegl. A catalogue will be published in conjunction with the exhibition, including a preface by Toni Stooss and contributions by Lisa Kreis and Friedrich Tietjen (112 pages, 74 pictures, €19.--). The Museum der Moderne Salzburg (MdM) consists of two buildings at two spectacular locations:

The MDM Rupertinum in the historic city center: a baroque building for new artistic concepts.
The MDM Mönchsberg over the rooftops of the Old City: modern art in a contemporary setting.
Visit : http://www.museumdermoderne.at/