HELD TOGETHER WITH WATER | EXHIBITION

Under the title "HELD TOGETHER WITH WATER. Art from the Sammlung Verbund", the MAK in Vienna presents one of the most exciting corporate collections, which is made accessible to the general public for the very first time.
Since 2004, the Austrian Verbund Electricity Corporation has started to build an international collection of contemporary art. The advisory board is headed by Gabriele Schor as chief collection curator.
Today the exhibition was opened with speeches by the MAK's director Peter Noever, by Mrs. Gabriele Schor of course and by the chairman of the managing board Verbund Hans Haider.
The exhibition will be open to the public until September 16th, 2007.
The catalogue is published by Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern, under the responsibility of Mr. Markus Hartmann, curated and edited by Mrs. Schor. The layout did rest in the hands of Mrs. Maria-Anna Friedl. And Mrs. Birgit Hofbauer of Edition Lammerhuber did all the reproduction work, work which lasted half a year and made her look very closely to the quality of 663 artefacts. Thank you very, very much for being tough enough to stay focused. Thank you, too to the wonderful collaboration with Mrs Gabriele Schor and on a daily basis with Mrs. Veronika Mader and Barbara Wünsch. It was a great pleasure working with you.

WIENER WEIN | BOOK

After one year of photographing through the seasons following nature and the work of the winemakers of Vienna I finished editing for the book on the "Wiener Wein". I will start to design the layout today and will be able to present it on May, 21st to my publisher Dr. Gabi Ambros, owner of the Bohmann Media House.
The book will open with a photographic essay covering the beauty of the Viennese vinyards as well as the work and culture. In twelve chapters the authors Florian Holzer, Peter Moser and Michael Pronay will bring light to every aspect of the unique situation of growing wine in a city of 2 million inhabitants.
The Mayor of Vienna, Dr. Michael Häupl will present the book to the wine loving public by the end of August 2007.

GEO AUSTRIA 05|07 | MAGAZINE

The Vienna Hofburg turned over the years into the most exiting agglomeration of museums. I am pretty certain that there is not other urban space in the world which offers so many phantastic high end exhibitions than the former residence of the Habsburgs in the Hofburg Palace. One of the rather quiet places is the Collection of Historic Instruments. An optical and accoustic feast for the visitor. It spans 400 years of collecting and did become the most spectacular museum of this kind on the planet. The Stradivaris and Guarneris are just some of the \"stars\" of this unique collection. On some occasions the museum does invite famous musicians to play the historic masterpieces like the violine of Mozart\'s father Leopold in the photo shown above.

ADAC COVER PARIS | MAGAZINE

While working in Paris on my project "Louvre avec Vues" the editor in chief of the ADAC reisemagazin Joachim Negwer called me up and asked me to do the cover for the celebration of 100 issues ADAC travel magazin. I felt honored to do so until he told me what the subject matter is: the Eiffel Tower.
Well, to shoot into a layout is a professional task. But to deal with a motif depicted a trillion times by tourist and professionals from all possible angels and to "make it look glamorous like a lady dressed for a celebration and painted by a French artist" is not a relaxing thought. I said yes, I would try. And walked away very worried.
The next day I examined the location and of course there are no surprises to discover. The only chance I saw was using the fountain basin below the Trocadero as a reflecting pool. But it is built in a way that it does not offer any access to get the tower in the middle of it. So the only chance to get the shot was to go into the water.
Night came, a warm spring night which did bring all Paris into the streets. On the lawn around the basin have been sitting thousands of young people watching the world go by.
And they got there show as Sebastian Rosenberg, my assistant and I took off our cloth and carried the equipment into the water.
We got a big hand and a lot of cheers - and the cover.

VIENNA ART BOOK AWARD | AWARD

At 11 a.m. the Vienna Artbook Award was given at the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna. The award's price money of 25.000 Euro is the highest in the world for a book on the arts.
The award ceremony was headed by S.D. Prinz Philipp von und zu Liechtenstein and Johann Kräftner, diector of the Liechtenstein Museum.
The jury's decision made the award go to: "Biedermeier: The Invention of Simplicity", published by Hatje Cantz.
The art historian Arthur Rosenauer held the laudatory speech and made it very clear what it was all about for the jury: the photography and the concept to it.
Well, I did not get the money but quite a bit of satisfaction.

LOUVRE AVEC VUES | BOOK

Ten days in Paris, no, ten days at the Musee du Louvre to finish up the work on the book project "Windows of the Louvre" now finally titeled "Louvre avec Vues". It was a phantastic time.
With the help of Madame Catherine Belanger who organized the work perfectly in close collaboration with Madame Francoise Cherdel-Sanon who took care of all security issues, with all the help of the firemen of the Louvre who made it possible for me to climb even to the most remote windows in the attic and with the help of my assistant Sebastian Rosenberg who is actually not an assistant, he is a photographer himself and a good friend, this giant undertaking did become true.
In an interview I did give to the author Madame Catherine Guignon who will write the text for the very first publication of this surprise project in the July/August issue of GEO France, we calculated how much we had to walk to see all rooms of the Louvre and visit all its windows, it was 500 (!) kilometers. Sebastian's and my shoes are worn out, almost got holes. Isn't this a project!
The negotiations of who is going to publish this book are almost finished too. There will be a powerful collaboration between Musee du Louvre, represented by Madame Violaine Bouvet-Lanselle, the famous publishing house La Martiniere, represented by Madame Brigitte Govignon and Edition Lammerhuber. The US rights will be with Abrams (owned by La Martiniere), the German rights will most likely go to Prestel.

I-GUIDE BADEN | TOURISM TOOL

Thanks to Klaus Lorenz, torism director of the City of Baden, I had the opportunity to get to know the city I work and live since 17 years. Finally I had to find my ways around to all hidden corners.
More than three days of walking, discovering and photographing I toured around Baden, acompanied by my assistan Milan. The most beautiful wheater someone can imagine all over Baden and a springtime as rich and colorful as I have never seen it before in all my life did set the stage for a photoproduction to fill the I-Guide Baden with a visual celebration. The electronic tool, I-Guide Baden is a very new and sophisticated multimedia tourist guide.
A brand new innovation I am happy to be part of.

SCHLOSS HOF, SPRING

The last photographic go around after two years of work in this charming wonderland of man made nature sorrounding the castle of Prince Eugene Schloss Hof happend to be gifted by nature. A spring of all springs turned reality into magic as you can see in the image posted above.
On may 21st I will start editing my photographs, I think I did take about 14.000 images all together, to hand them in to the graphic designers of Büro Meisinger in Vienna to layout the book.

HOTEL KRAINERHÜTTE | HELENEN VALLEY

This was part two of an assignement for this famous hotel in the romantic Helenen Valley. It was all to be shot indoors with the same group of models. What can I say? It was like working with friends. And it is time to say "thank you" for the collaboration to the owner/director of Hotel Krainerhütte Josef Dietmann.