WIENER WEIN | BOOK

Starting on the day mentioned above, I completed with some winter impressions this book for the Bohmann Verlag and the City of Vienna, the third book in a series of three: "Wiener Wasser", "Wiener Wälder" and finally "Wiener Wein". All three books are inspired by the visions of the Mayor of Vienna, Dr. Michael Häupl. They form a series not only by their subject matters relating to Vienna, but also by a uniform photographic style and graphic design, which I also provided. The first two volumes had more than 400 pages; the third volume will be published at the end of August and will hold 240 pages. More than 10,000 photographs have been shot so far to cover all aspects of the demanding concept written by Florian Holzer and Christian Grünwald, who will also write the texts. The coordination of the project rests in the hands of Andreas Schwab of MA49 of the City of Vienna. The book will showcase the unique position of Vienna as the world's only capital city with substantial wine growing areas. And by the way: those vineyards produce excellent wines.

CEVA | ADVERTISING

On February 18th, I met my assistant Sebastian Rosenberg in Frankfurt. We followed the concept of Prock and Zott, a Salzburg based PR-Company to create the images meant to support the newly developed company philosophy of Ceva, a big player in the international logistics industry. The photographs have been taken at the Pirelli warehouse in Otzberg at the Mercedes plant in Berlin and at Airbus Industries in Hamburg.

GEO AUSTRIA 03|07 | MAGAZINE

Geo Austria 03|2007 shows the Weinviertel seen from a plane. A birds-eye view of one of the most fascinating landscapes of Austria. Alfred "Freddy" Grill was my pilot and Hanne Egghardt did write the text. Since 10|1994 Geo Austria has been editet and coordinated by Silvia Lammerhuber and photographed by me. Starting with issue 01|2007 we are producing Geo Austria, too. The hands for help are Birgit Hofbauer who takes care of the data management and Brigitte Peneder as our X-Press-wizard. This being issue 149, we will have reason to celebrate next month with our publisher Erwin Luthwig and Maria Gepp who originally "invented this collaboration".

METAMORPHOSEN | BOOK

Well, sometimes I think I am crazy. Last summer I signed a contract with the Vienna State Opera for delivery of 4,000 copies of a book called "Metamorphosen", EXCLUSIVELY available at the Opera Ball as so-called "Herrenspende", a give-away present to all male visitors of this famous Viennese dance feast. The book shows the magic changes required to transform an Opera for just one night into a giant ballroom for approximately 7,300 people. Early in December, I realized that something was overdue, I mean, completely overdue. The only work done was an interview I had the pleasure to conduct with Mrs. Elisabeth Gürtler, "Prinzipalin" or Chairlady of the Vienna Opera Ball. So I had to do everything at the same time: editing, writing, book-designing and finding sponsors to cover the cost of a print run of 4,000 copies, each book holding 144 pages, printed in 6 colours on finest art print paper produced by Sappi and using for print the Grasl-HQ-print process with 250,000 motif-oriented micro dots per square centimetre. Of course the book had to be bound in fine linen and presented in an elegant slip-cover. Now everything is done, including posters, public relation material, bags, etc. In particular, I wish to thank Birgit Hofbauer for all her digital work, Brigitte Peneder for the pre-press-production, and Jacqueline Thommes for the translation into English and French. Last, but not least thanks to Walter Grasl for his great collaboration in every way. The sponsors that supported me so generously are: Hottinger Group of Vienna and Geneva, Waagner Biro Stage Systems, Artaker, Dorotheum, Weingut Hajszan, Jörg Doll, ONE, Heinz W.Pichler, Sappi and Papernet. Thank you very much for the trust you have placed in this very special project.

TWO STORIES ON PARIS | MAGAZIN

Joachim Negwer, Editor in Chief of the ADAC reisemagazine in Hamburg, assigned two stories for the upcoming edition on Paris, "The Louvre" and "Montmartre". I took the photographs last fall and have just finished editing and completed delivery. The Paris reisemagazine will hit bookstores and newsstands on 28|08|2007.

BIEDERMEIER | EXHIBITION BOOK

On that evening at 8.00 p.m, Dr. Heinz Fischer, President of the Republic of Austria, inaugurated the exhibition "Biedermeier: The Invention of Simplicity" together with Dr. Klaus Albrecht Schröder, Director of the Albertina. This touring exhibition started last fall at the Milwaukee Art Museum and will travel from the Albertina to the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, and to the Louvre in Paris. Mrs. Laurie Winters, curator of the Milwaukee Art Museum, had the initial idea for this groundbreaking exhibition. In some "soft" moments she admits that she received her first inspiration from the book "The World of Biedermeier", a "baby" Linda Chase, Karl Kemp and I gave birth to at the Whitney Museum in New York City in 2002. In an exceptional book review, the New York Times stated that "The World of Biedermeier is the reinvention of Interior Design Photography". When news reached me the same evening that the exhibition book "Biedermeier: The Invention of Simplicity" had been awarded "BEST DECORATIVE ART BOOK OF 2006" by the New York Times and the "NEW YORK BOOK SHOW AWARD OF 2007" for special trade edition - I admit I felt very honoured, especially because the photographic concept I chose here is a completely different one. Driving home I thought to myself, "Well that's not bad, if your book can trigger an exhibition and cause all of this". Many thanks Laurie!