In spring 1980, as Manfred Willmann announced his plans to publish a “photographic magazine”, the rest of us (Seiichi Furuya, Branko Lenart, Harald Strobl, Helmut Tezak perhaps, and myself) smiled at his courage. We accused him of being presumptuous. It was really an expression of our respect for what we thought it would take to produce a magazine, apart from the medial and thematic orientation defined by our previous work — a team of editors, translators, office staff and correspondents, sales and marketing personnel, in short: money. Since 1977 we had published various exhibition catalogues. In 1979 we organized the first “Symposium on Photography”, our in cooperation with “styrian autumn” festival. The contributions to this event, which gave new direction to our work, were published in a book (which is still not out of print!). Establishing a distribution system for individual book projects was, and still is, a difficult undertaking. A magazine, on the other hand, held a promise of subscribers, of regular distribution and a base for continuous publication work.

The concept of a magazine also seemed to change our position as mediators. Presenting artistic work in exhibitions, within the institutional framework of the Forum Stadtpark artists’ association, had become part of an artistic strategy. However, a magazine that is designed for an anonymous space while competing against all other magazines aimed at the same market also requires a concept of mediation that will present artistic positions to a reader unfamiliar with the institutional context.

As we publish the 50th issue, it is a cause of considerable satisfaction that CAMERA AUSTRIA has become and will remain a magazine for artists while successfully addressing an anonymous public in an international field. In these past 15 years we have had many examples — many collaborators from whose work as artists, theorists, mediators and co-thinkers we have learned. They have questioned seemingly well-secured concepts of “photographic quality”; their work has allowed us to confront conceptions of photography as art defined in terms of formality and craft with analytical concepts; they have taught us to explore the gap between depiction and reality. This knowledge of the alienation of the photographic image also helped us to critically look at an integral concept of art. More than anything else, these people have encouraged us to persistently continue in our work by continuing in their own with a similar persistence.

CAMERA AUSTRIA no. 50 focuses on three photographic works and, along with them, on three artistic positions that might, in a way, be taken to stand for the “program” of our magazine and our work in general: Nan Goldin, Portraits 1991-1994; Olivier Richon, “After D.L.”, 1993, and Seiichi Furuya, “Expulsion — Flight”, 1993. Apart from the fact that we were the first to show their work in the German language area (Seiichi Furuya’s in 1978, Olivier Richon’s in 1985 and Nan Goldin’s in 1987) and have repeatedly cooperated with them since, their common denominator is that all of them are recipients of the “Camera Austria Award of International Contemporary Photography” of the City of Graz. This award was founded in 1989 by the city of Graz in recognition of our work and enables us to pass on the city’s gratitude to the artists who have made our work of mediation possible by their cooperation and their interest in CAMERA AUSTRIA.

These three photographic positions are placed in a greater context of artistic works that have occupied us since the early eighties. We believe that they may serve to bring under discussion, in this issue, various questions of content, methodical approaches and a current concept of the medium of photography. These questions are certainly raised with one of the works introduced in this issue, the 1982 painting “Two Candles” by Gerhard Richter. A photographic reproduction thereof was installed in 1995 on the façade of the Dresden Kunstverein in order to commemorate the destruction of Dresded fifty years ago. Apart from numerous work-immanent aspects discussed in the accompanying essays, the works at stake here are to represent, first of all, the keeping open of spaces  where art is produced, perceived, debated and thus brought into being . Along these lines we want to explicitly emphasize the contribution of our readers and subscribers. Their expectations and their critical attitude are a major incentive for our future work!

The content of the upcoming double issue (no. 51/52) is determined by the contributions to the 1994 Symposium on Photography: “The Archive” is being explored from many angles by artists and theorists, among them Monique Behr (on Peter Roehr), Henry Bond & Liam Gillick, David Goldblatt, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Inez van Lamsweerde, Roberta McGrath, Christopher Williams and Herta Wolf.

Finally, coming back to the necessity of an economic basis for a serial publication, we need to advise you that we are forced to raise the sales prices for CAMERA AUSTRIA: Our last adjustment to a strongly rising price level was in 1992. Meanwhile, paper prices alone have gone up 60%. We hope you will understand our decision. We would also like to remind you of our discount on all back issues of CAMERA AUSTRIA for subscribers in the hope that you will use this opportunity to complete your library.

Our readers and colleagues abroad will have made the same experience as we have: Without support from private and public institutions one cannot realise a publication and exhibition program of the standard we are trying to maintain. It is one result of our work over the past twenty years that the medium of photography is now being included in public art funding programs in Austria. For this, we thank the Austrian Ministry of Science, Research and Art and the Cultural Departments of Styria and the City of Graz for the continuity of their support and the resulting relative security for our ongoing work.

Christine Frisinghelli
Manfred Willmann