institute heidersberger
Archives of historical and cultural significance can be found in many fields of art and culture. It is a tremendous challenge to preserve and update them at an affordable price and to guarantee the use of this information for the present and the future.
Archives managed by private persons often just barely manage to survive. This is usually due to a lack of funds and knowledge about how to conserve and make such information available for active use. The Heidersberger Institute hopes to find a solution to this problem.
Before the Institute was formed, the first phase of recovery work (2000 - 2002) done on Heinrich Heidersberger's archive provided new insight into the spectrum of his work. An inner conflict that many of his fellow photographers were forced to face in the 20th century became very apparent. It was the rift between applied and free photography. On the one hand, there was free photography, which was subjected to the autonomous dictates of the arts, and on the other hand, there were the generally very narrow conventions of applied photography.
Majorities of the free works are familiar to the interested public; many areas of Heinrich Heidersberger's work, however, have remained exclusive to the customer and the photographer himself.
Due to the complexity of this photographer's work, the Heidersberger Institute sees itself faced with a number of different tasks.
The primary goal is to secure the existing work, to record and archive it in its entirety and to make it accessible to the general public.
A review of the work from a contemporary perspective with the inclusion of the theory and practice of techniques in photography in equal parts serves as a basis or point of orientation for other institutions and artists.
In the near future, the Heidersberger scholarship will invite young professional creative artists (e.g. artists, curators and authors) to become actively involved with the work of Heinrich Heidersberger.
For more information, please refer to the Newsletter and the press.
