SALZBURG.- The gaze at the other—and at ourselves—has always been a fixture of photography. The medium’s pioneers already explored its potential for portraiture; today, in the digital era, portrait shots are incessantly being posted on all channels and circulate in the social networks. Many of these images speak to history on several levels: photographs of individuals and types reflect social conventions, while poses and staging prompt conjectures concerning the identities and individuality of the sitters and the intentions of the photographers. Numerous works of fine art photography that address these concerns can be found in the Federal Photography Collection, which has been steadily enlarged since 1981 and is housed at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. Its outstanding quality is the fruit of an acquisitions program that, rather than emphasizing the criteria of defined genres, takes its cue from what working artists select for submission. This approach has made the collection a singular storehouse of historical memory preserving a record of the social tendencies and phenomena that struck the contributing artists as significant at different times. “The new accessions of the past several years show that photographers increasingly use the camera to reflect on selfhood and the engagement with the other. We see this as a vital development and an excellent occasion to mount an exhibition surveying a fascinating and variegated genre: the depiction of human being,” says Christiane Kuhlmann, curator of photography and media art. “The first public presentation to shed light on the Federal Photography Collection’s evolution, the show underscores the crucial significance of its holdings for our programming,” notes Thorsten Sadowsky, director of the Museum der Moderne Salzburg.

Divided into five chapters (Individuality/Likeness, Seeing/Looking, Gender/Performance, Childhood/Adolescence, and Documentation/Reportage), the exhibition presents recent photographs together with early specimens from the Federal Photography Collection and newcomers in dialogue with established artists. It also brings the public debut of the very first work acquired for the collection, a picture by the photographer Ernst Zündel. Thanks to a permanent reorganization of the floorplan of the galleries at the Rupertinum, the building now boasts six exhibition rooms, in which Humanity in Photographs. Recent Acquisitions of the Federal Photography Collection showcases works by altogether twentyseven artists.

With Works by Wolfgang Bender (1960 Dornbirn, AT―Vienna, AT), Renate Bertlmann (1943 Vienna―Vienna, AT), Lillian Birnbaum (1955 New York, NY, US―Paris, FR), Trude Fleischmann (1895 Vienna, AT―1990 Brewster, NY, US), Nilbar Güreş (1977 Istanbul, TR―Vienna, AT), Ernst Haas (1921 Vienna, AT―1986, New York, NY, US), Nikola Hansalik (1975 Vienna, AT), Ana Hoffner (1980 Paraćin, RS―Vienna, AT), Sabine Jelinek (1969 Vienna―Vienna, Linz, AT), Ruth Kaaserer (1972 Kitzbühel, AT―Vienna, Linz, AT), Paul Kranzler (1979 Linz―Linz, AT; Leipzig, DE), Friedl Kubelka (1946 London, UK―Vienna, AT), Ulrike Lienbacher (1963 Oberndorf, AT―Salzburg, AT), Michael Mauracher (1954 Klagenfurt, AT―Salzburg, AT), Martina Mina and Sabine Schwaighofer (1976 Vienna, AT; 1969 Salzburg, AT―Vienna, AT), Inge Morath (1923 Graz, AT―2002 New York, NY, US), Michaela Moscouw (1961 Vienna, AT), Georg Petermichl (1980 Linz, AT―Vienna, AT) Margot Pilz (1936 Haarlem, NL―Vienna, AT), Christoph Scharff (1958 Vienna, AT), Nina Rike Springer (1976 Klagenfurt, AT―Vienna, AT), Lothar Rübelt (1901 Vienna, AT―1990 Reifnitz, AT), Hans Schabus (1970 Watschig, AT―Vienna, AT), Sira-Zoé Schmid (1985 Vienna―Vienna, Salzburg, AT), Margherita Spiluttini (1947 Schwarzach im Pongau, AT―Vienna, AT), Nikolaus Walter (1945 Rankweil, AT―Feldkirch, AT), Rudolf Zündel (1939 Bezau, AT―2018 Schwarzach, AT)

Curators: Christiane Kuhlmann with Andrea Lehner-Hagwood