Salzburg Global Collaboration Creates Photography Exhibit at FOTOHOF

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Apr 25, 2016
by Patrick Wilson
Salzburg Global Collaboration Creates Photography Exhibit at FOTOHOF

Irish photographers featured in exhibit at FOTOHOF Gallery thanks to collaboration between Salzburg Fellows

Herman Seidl and Tanya Kiang at the opening of the FOTOHOF exhibit on Contemporary Photography from Ireland A new photography exhibit is now open at the FOTOHOF Gallery thanks to collaboration between Salzburg Global Seminar Fellows. The Contemporary Photography from Ireland exhibit, in collaboration with the Gallery of Photography in Dublin, features several displays by seven contemporary fine art photographers from Ireland as well as twenty topical photo books from Ireland that capture different aspects of both Irish culture, history and heritage. The origins of the collaboration began from a chance meeting between fellows at Session 502 | Power in Whose Palm? The Digital Democratization of Photography. Tanya Kiang, Director/Curator at the Gallery of Photography, Dublin and Herman Seidl, freelance photographer as well as staff member and curator at the FOTOHOF, spoke to Salzburg Global at the opening of the exhibit about how their meeting at the session inspired the collaboration and brought the work of these Irish artists to Salzburg. “There were some really fantastic sessions in the seminar itself but it was quite cloistered,” Kiang said. “You stayed in the Schloss and you were in the sessions from morning to night time, it was exhausting. At one point during one of the sessions Herman made an intervention and he played a very lovely photo piece by Duane Michals. It really lifted my heart. We’d been talking about these very important and serious things and then there was finally some visual pleasure going on. We were all kind of lifted by it I think. Immediately after that day’s meeting there was an opening of a photography exhibit at the FOTOHOF which the seminar Fellows were invited to. As soon as I walked into the FOTOHOF I went right up to Herman and said something is going to happen. He must have thought, who is this crazy Irish girl?” “I remember Tanya not being just satisfied with that one visit,” said Seidl. “She came back another day and went through all the book productions we have done so far. At first we didn’t have any major intentions but then over the course of two years we kept meeting at photo scene meets in Europe in festivals in places like Paris. Then it was the Solas Photography Prize that really got us talking, where you made me a panel judge. We wanted to share these amazing artists across borders and bring their work to the FOTOHOF here in Salzburg.” Tanya believes the Irish Photography scene is in a strong place and has many aspects that allow for a thriving photographic culture including great undergraduate and postgraduate courses and exhibition spaces. As well as this, the many social changes happening in Ireland have created a fluid and energetic environment that she believes comes across in the several exhibits. As part of the collaboration, artists from Salzburg will also be featured in an exhibit at the Gallery of Photography in Dublin, Ireland. Kiang and Seidl believed the cultural exchange was invaluable for our shared culture. “If you don’t have something comparative happening you’re just going to sink into a morass of nothing.” Kiang said. “The more points of reference you can make the more we can work out our differences and similarities and break down the boundaries we put around ourselves. There are so many things that Austria and Ireland have in common. Ireland and Austria look to each other for foreign policy commonalities more so than other big blocks in the European Union.” Seidl finished by praising Salzburg Global’s ability to create collaborations like this exhibit and the power it has as a tool for learning. “When I’ve photographed some of the sessions, I’ve been totally taken back by the topics and it’s so much fun to be there and be part of it. You never stop learning, that’s the thing about it. You always have new experiences and new encounters. To me international encounters are the only way to break out of our comfort zones and expand our minds. If you wouldn’t move out of Austria or Ireland you would never expand your mind. The intercultural interactions that Salzburg Global provides are totally mind blowing and important for our collective cultural growth.” The exhibit is available to view at the FOTOHOF gallery until April 28, 2016.