SWAN SERIES
My Swan series of 45 images is part of the unpublished book project "Swan - A True Life Fairy Tale".
This heart project started with a group photographic exhibition at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel in 2018. There I met author and now dear friend Barbara Bullock-Wilson. I joined Barbara for dinner and there she was moved to share a story she had written about an encounter she had with a wild swan on Cape Cod. I was deeply moved by her words and also after my return to Austria this story was always on my mind. So I asked Barbara if she would be interested in a collaboration by making a book.
So for more than two years I photographically accompanied a special swan that lived on a nearby lake of my home in Austria. Every time I photographed this wonderful bird I felt this timelessness and deep inner peace... It was magical...
Especially in these so troubled times of violence, injustice and discrimination I wanted to make a small contribution to represent the positive, the beautiful, the bright and the love. In creating these images I realized for myself that all this is omnipresent simultaneously on our planet. It encouraged me to be especially aware of the beauty of the world as a whole and as a positive counterpoint. Joy and peace - symbolic and timeless in the figure of this wonderful being...
GENERAL ARTIST STATEMENT
I am trying to get to the bottom of things, not only technically, but also in a psychological and symbolic sense. I take an observer’s position and I try to document latent moods and secret moments in low-key colours and formal exactness. Moreover, I am striving to create an atmosphere of vagueness, somehow linking what is inside with the exterior, a process of unveiling and bringing something to light! A recurring motif is the presentation of innermost states, both with regard to the intellect but also to emotions. The photographs challenge the beholder to look closer and, work out the different layers, each one telling their own stories. I try to invite the beholder to stand still and linger over what he sees and maybe, apart from the space that is provided for individual interpretation, also find a moment of peace and harmony in this fast-paced time!
