five directions of photography through photography

Students in the Art and Photography program at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna examine five issues in contemporary photography. The latter comes into view as a fractal system that ties the humanities to an analysis of power relations, history, and everyday life. “Appropriation,” “Self-Representation,” “Visual Sociology,” “Portraiture of Power,” and “Abstraction and Spectacle” are the five thematic fields in which the artists develop their ideas about methods and new works.
Does photography have the power to objectify subjects by regarding them through the lens? Is it even capable of turning people into icons? What is the position of the discourse on photography within contemporary art? The portraiture of power, the appropriation of photographic material, and processes of abstraction from and reflection on the artist’s own medium seek to offer insights into the current production of the Art and Photography program.

ARTISTS
Anatoliy Babiychuk, Robert Bodnar, Çagla Cömert, Beatrix Curran,  Maria Giovanna Drago, Andreas Eli, Verena Faißt, Stefan Feiner, Magdalena Fischer, Claire de Foucauld,  Ana Paula Franco, Luise Hardegg, Valentina Hirsch, Eren Ileri, Alek Kawka, Mario Kiesenhofer, Tina Lechner, Madis Luik, Manuel Carreon Lopez, Diego Mosca, Josip Novosel, Elvira Obermayer, Elsa Okazaki, Agnes Prammer, Susanne Quehenberger, Linda Reif, Simona Reisch, Johann Schoiswohl, Anita Schmid, Sira Schmid, Thaddäus Stockert, Marlies Surtmann, Thomas Trabitsch, Amelie Zadeh, Elisabeth Zeininger