Christian Wachter’s Werkschau “Concept versus Photography“ takes place in cooperation with Fotogalerie Wien. The Fotogalerie Wien, currently without exhibition space due to construction works, realizes exhibitions in this transitional year with befriended institutions in Austria and abroad – the first host and cooperation partner in Austria is FOTOHOF.

With Christian Wachter (*1949 in Oberwart), we are showing a retrospective overview exhibition of an outstanding work of contemporary Austrian photography in the exhibition series “WERKSCHAU“. Wachter is an early representative of Austrian auteur photography who soon also opened up to politically reflected conceptual photography in his work − a field of tension that is also reflected in his exhibition title and in his expansive exhibition concept that goes beyond the usual chronology of a retrospective show.

The exhibition opens up the broad spectrum that characterizes Wachter’s work − from the beginnings with social documentary B/W series, such as “Portraits, Vienna“ from 1984, to sprawling image formations such as “NFT-Cs“ from 2022. More than 20 years ago, Wachter had dissolved his darkroom, which was then in use as a smoking room.
His series of hundreds of C-prints of crumpled cigarette packets − NFT-Cs “Non-Fungible Tobacco-Containers“ − are ironic factual photographs that illustrate the underlying factor of photography, time (and the associated change in everyday photographic culture and mentality as well), just as they satirize the latest trends in digital imagery. Opposite the exterior wall with its impressive Petersburg-style image installation, we see the series “Come in. Please! (work-corona-live)“ − the photographer thus playfully transfers his entire Viennese “Altbau“ apartment to the Salzburg suburb.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a WERKSCHAU catalog and a WERKSCHAU edition.