With the work of press photographer Heini Mayr, FOTOHOF presents an exhibition that is intended to be exemplary for the development of press photography in the post-war period. It is less about the »highlights« than about a presentation of his everyday work.
Heini Mayr’s career after the Second World War was exemplary for a generation – as a Salzburg press photographer, he made the leap to the Mecca of magazine photography at the time, Life. Heini Mayr himself was also clearly aware of these milestones and thus ensured a great deal of self-promotion alongside his work. In the spirit of his time, which was still experiencing an unbroken upswing in press photography, the photographer’s work itself became interesting news.
Heini Mayr’s work should be seen against the backdrop of the visual culture of the time. It was always geared towards the needs of the large mass press. It was no coincidence that his reportage of the Salzburg mountain cleaners was one of his most successful: a cliché image from Salzburg that also had a certain sensational value. His reports on Schuhplattler in New York or “The Village that lives on Skis” about Kitzbühel are very similar. One of the aims of this exhibition is to show such mechanisms and how they are received today.
from: Kurt Kaindl, FOTOHOF Info, issue 4/1984