“The concept underlying Cities, Episodes is that of an artist’s book. Most of the photographs were taken on my travels, focusing on the typographical and typological of towns and cities. In places such as railway stations, airports and cemeteries I sense a particularly strong tension and a quickening pulse. These constellations of motifs are also interspersed with autobiographical aspects. Each good journey ends with a number of irritating self-portraits as a traveller, in a state of either exhaustion or euphoria. The oldest photographs in the book date back to 1979, in Cairo. And the latest, current photographs were taken in Portugal, Hungary and Croatia in 2004. The book contains 455 illustrations.” (Paul Albert Leitner, December 2004)

Paul Albert Leitner is a time traveller and a world traveller. Even at home, among mountains of boxes with thousands and thousands of meticulously labelled photos, objets trouvés, newspaper cuttings and texts, he is merely passing through, pausing briefly to put some order into his thoughts, the many names and the pictures. Leitner, the philosopher photographer, takes the metaphor of existence as an ongoing journey both very seriously and very lightly. For the past twenty-five years he has created photographs of places and situations all over the world, with great curiosity and his eyes wide open to the world within and without; indeed he himself has become an art figure in these changing phases of life. Leitner’s photography is characterised by a sensitive affinity for the poetry of the everyday; it is magical in the way only photographs can be magical as they capture the moment – a touching testimony of just how precious a fleeting moment can be, and how unique its constellations.

Paul Albert Leitner, *1957 in Jenbach, Austria. Lives and works in Vienna.