10 July 2018

Volkskundemuseum Wien presents findings of researches on private photographs captured in Austria 1930 - 1950

By looking through the image-preview of the upcoming exhibition 'Alle antreten! Es wird geknipst!' (means as much as 'Line up for the shooting!') about private photography in Austria between 1930 and 1950 from 10 October 2018 until 17 February 2019 at the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art (Volkskundemuseum Wien), the history of the years before, during and after World War II appears from the angle of the family documents (photo albums) like a story about war and peace. Pictures from Wachau, the apricot harvest (images above) to the air raid alarm over Salzburg (below, left) mediate - at the first view, the feeling as if people captured real life. But what the researchers have found out is that most of the material deliver impressions of permanent vacation. Some may find similarities with posts on social media like Instagram. Well, private photographers aren't professional photo journalists or war reporters and interested mainly in the immortalization of happy moments. The private photographs deliver no traces of - for example - the Austrian Civil War, aryanisations or deportations.

Since autumn 2016, scientists have collected private photo material under the guidance of various research questions. One of the questions was how people living today will pass on history when seeing these photo albums.

fig.: Opposite pages from the same album with pictures from the 1930s and 1940s. The album was probably created in the 1950s by an unknown Viennese woman. (Archive Tietjen).


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