Dozens of Black and White Photos go on Show at Vienna's Westlicht Gallery
Thursday, May 1, 2008 @ 04:53
A collection of eighty-three black and white prints from such well-known photographers as Erich Lessing and Robert Capa have gone on display after being buried for fifty years in a basement in Austria.
These pictures, including some by famed French photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson and Marc Riboud, will be on display at Vienna's Westlicht Gallery until May 18th. They were part of one of the first touring exhibitions staged by the Magnum photo co-operative in 1955, the show was entitled "Face of an era," and provided an interesting insight into the practice of photography in post-war Europe. These photos were recently discovered in the basement of a French institute during preparations for a move. Fortunately, they were perfectly preserved and thus are "a formidable treasure from the golden age of photography," according to Christoph Schaden, a German art historian who was commissioned to examine the collection of photographs after they were rediscovered in their basement hideaway.
These photographs saw the light of day in five Austrian towns and at the well known Fotokina fair in Cologne in 1956 before disappearing, this collection will clearly have a "historic value for the art of photography," said Schaden.
What gave them so much appeal, he added, was that they "dared to cast a liberal eye on the world in post-war Austria." It would also seem that the initiators of the original exhibit appear to have intentionally discarded all war shots that may have at one time been included in the collection. Rather, it would appear that they wanted to "focus attention on utopic moments and feature non-violence, as was advocated by Gandhi in India for instance, courtesy of Henri Cartier-Bresson," said Schaden.
The find of an exhibit such as this is clearly a gift from heaven, especially since these photos were taken long before the digital age contemplated. So, if you want to see them, you only have until May 18th as they leave Vienna's Westlicht Gallery then.
