Contributions to a History of Photography in Austria, volume 19

Edited by Monika Faber for Photoinstitut Bonartes, Vienna, and Walter Moser for the Photographic Collection of the Albertina, Vienna

Otto Wagner (1841–1918), a pioneer of modern architecture, also broke new ground with his passionate advocacy of radical changes in building and construction. The use of private photographs, unusual perspectives and details as well as his unerring instinct for the impact of the photographic image are defining aspects of his forward-looking approach to the medium. Wagner was aware of the wide range of possibilities afforded by photography as well as its advantages compared with drawings and models, which were his profession’s established means of communication. This publication draws on photographs only recently discovered in Otto Wagner’s estate to analyse the strategic use of the medium of photography in the early days of modern architecture.

Andreas Nierhaus is an art historian and curator of the Architecture Collection at the Wien Museum.

Image 1:
Otto Wagner (?)
First Wagner Villa, stable building window with Otto Wagner’s daughters Christine (l.) and Luise, and an unknown person (r.), 1898,
collodion printing-out paper, pencil, 11,9 × 17,4 cm
© private collection; Courtesy Photoinstitut Bonartes, Wien

Image 2:
Anonymous
Stadtbahn bridge over the Wienzeile at Gumpendorf, c 1898,
collodion printing-out paper, 17,8 × 24,2 cm
© private collection; Courtesy Photoinstitut Bonartes, Wien

Image 3:
Anonymous, Apartment building at Köstlergasse 1 (Linke Wienzeile 38), scaffolding view of the building at Linke Wienzeile 40 (Majolika-Haus), 1899,
silver gelatine print, 23,9 × 18,2 cm
© private collection; Courtesy Photoinstitut Bonartes, Wien