brennen!, nur darauf kommt es an
brennen!, nur darauf kommt es an
ERNST HARTMANN 1907–1983
Edited by Heidi Harsieber
With an introduction by Maren Gröning
German, 200 pages, 16 × 22 cm, numerous illustrations in color and b/w, softcover
November 2020
ISBN 978-3-903172-66-1
€ 28,00 [A]
€ 27,20 [D]
Raised in a culturally versed family of civil engineers, Ernst Hartmann went on to study at Vienna’s School of Applied Arts. Surrounded by the likes of Franz Čižek and Josef Hoffmann, and immersed in the artistic avant-garde in his work as a press photographer, he gave a new generation of students access to modern photography after the Second World War, when he taught at the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna.
His approach was a holistic one that went far beyond technical skills and included teaching intellectual aspects and art as a whole. The book offers a vivid picture of this idiosyncratic personality through texts by many of his students (among them Julian Schutting, Friedl Kubelka, Margot Pilz, and the book’s editor). It shows the evolution of his photographic work in a carefully curated array of works. Additionally, the book features typewritten notes by Hartmann—poignant ruminations on the art and culture of his time.
The editor, photographer Heidi Harsieber, shines a contemporary light on Ernst Hartmann, revealing him to be an important representative of the history of Austrian photography and an “advocate of the avant-garde; a strong-willed, expressionist creative” (Maren Gröning in her introduction).
