17 | 1985

CAMERA AUSTRIA No. 17 focusses on photographic work dealing with Japan. Forum Stadtpark has arranged a retrospective dedicated to Shomei Tomatsu to be exhibited in Austira, Italy, West Germany and the Netherlands. An accompanying exhibition catalogue was published by CAMERA AUSTRIA. The catalogue’s opening series of picutres- “11:92 Nagasaki”, a reflection of the traumatic events and effects of the atomic bomb dropped over that city – is also include in this issue. In recent years CAMERA AUSTRIA has repeatedly paid attention to contemporary Japanese photography. The nuclear threat has proved to be a topical interest in today’s Japan and consequently in that country’s photography. (See, for example , Tsuneo Enari in CAMERA AUSTRIA 7/81 and Hiromi Tsuchida in CAMERA AUSTRIA 15-16/84.) This critical debate is complemented by a picture sequence by Arnuld Rainer taken from his series ” Hiroshima”. In the accompanying text , the claim of possibility of actually grasping the horror and of understanding the full import of that event is put into relative perspective. This work is also presently shown in a traveling exhibition throughout Europ in more than twenty cities. Photographies by Michael Moser, who, at age nineteen, took part in the Austrian East Asia Expedition as an assistant to Wilhelm Burger, portray of nineteenth century Japan. (In this connection we remind of the  extensive retrospective on Burger at the Vienna Museum of Modern Art and the relating monograph by Gert Rosenberg, Edition Christian Brandstätter.)

The History of Art Photography”- a dries of articles by Peter Weibel – being completed, Timm Starl by way of an introduction sets forth the intention of a new series beginning in this issue: center ing a number of specifically photographic topics around the history of the photographic image, an understanding of which seems indispensable for any approach to modern photography. Questions of central interest will be discussed, complemented by comparative picture material.

CAMERA AUSTRIA, as ever, sees itself as a platform of mutual reference between the achievements of Austrian photographers and exemplary work of international provenance. We take the growing exemplary work of international provenance. We take the growing number of subscriptions as an encouragement to continue this course. The upcoming issue (CAMERA AUSTRIA 18, May/June 1985) will highlight most recent Austrian photography. It is an attempt to seine the present position of Austrian photography by critically reflecting the work of recent years(Sugeestions are appreciated.) WE may proudly claim that since  CAMERA AUSTRIA has first been published, international interest in Austrian photographers has immensely increased as indicated by their participation in exhibitions abroad and by the attention they now enjoy in publications about contemporary photography.

Manfred Willmann, Christine  Frisinghelli