Author Description

In Austria, what is generally referred to as Heimat (home or homeland) photography featured local sights: peasants, churchgoers, skiers and rural alpine landscapes. As these traditional, romanticized images came to be identified with the idea of a nation, they were used by the Standestaat of 1930s Austria to promote a national identity that grew into fascism. Author Elizabeth Cronin proposes to consider the history of the genre as a whole in this study that utilizes selections from the collections from the Albertina and Photoinstitut Bonartes to explore Heimat photography as a crucial part of 1930s visual culture. Her essays discuss the work of the genre s principal exponents Rudolf Koppitz, Peter Paul Atzwanger, Simon Moser, Stefan Kruckenhauser, Wilhelm Angerer, Hans Angerer, Hans W. Hannau and Adalbert Defner. This telling research into the power of imagery allows us to see how images can be easily manipulated and redefined depending on the political climate of a time and the forces in power.