Internationally renowned photographers and artists were invited to the 5th symposion on photography in the Forum Stadtpark during the Styrian Autumn ’83. In lectures on photography and by means of picture material (in the form of slides and the exhibit “photography ’83” shown as additional information) they gave a general idea of their work and conveyed their theoretical demands on the medium photography – and so does the present issue. In comparison we refer the reader to issue No. 14 of CAMERA AUSTRIA, in which a different approach was used to present contemporary photography: texts by journalism and authors complement, comment, and explain the photographers’ and artists’ works. The publishers of CAMERA AUSTRIA consider both kinds of approach equally important.

It is the aim of the symposion on photography to present different points of view within the possibilities of doing photographic work. We have taken care to win participants who describe different positions in approaching the medium in their work: thus the documentary work by Hiromi Tsuchida and Michael Schmidt stand next to the staged single-picture self-portraits by Cindy Sherman and Friedl Kubleka-Bondy’s self-portraits consisting of many parts and having been put together over a prolonged period of time. (Friedl Kubelka-Bondy  won the fourth supporting prize for photography by the Austrian Ministry of Education in 1984.). Hermann Stamm uses among others photos he found in a family album, Christian Boltanki reflects on photography and artifact, and Franco Vaccari examines the technological fads of the medium photography and its “language” defended there in his contribution which is the only theoretical one.

The present issue of CAMERA AUSTRIA is a double issue again(and the size of No. 14 would have sufficed for one as well). We hope that our readers will make use of the abundance of information offered. This number contains also an index of issues 1 to 14(an index of authors and photographers) for those who want to read CAMERA AUSTRIA more often and want to use it as a working basis. We want to point our that issue 1 is out of print and that issues 2 to 4 can only be sold for subscribers . You will find the program and the list of participants of this year’s symposion on photography VI on page 27.

Christine Fisinghelli, Manfred Willmann