FOTOHOF>EDITION

Presenting solutions to climate change is the central theme of the contemporary photography exhibition »Project Groundswell«. FOTOHOF has joined forces with three other European institutions in the field of artistic photography and, with the help of EU funding, has invited European artists to take part in a competition addressing the global challenge of climate change. The focus is on solutions to the multiple crises. At a time when awareness of environmental issues is higher than ever before, Project Groundswell wants to take the next step: translating awareness into concrete action through the expressive power of photography.

Winner of the German Photobook Award in the Archive Book category monography

The work of the Austrian-British exile photographer Edith Tudor-Hart (1908–1973) is presented in a new and extensive retrospective in the photo book “A steady eye in turbulent times”. Her life is traced in detail in the authors’ texts.
As a central protagonist of social documentary photography between 1930 and 1955, Edith Tudor-Hart drew attention to social grievances and dealt with topics such as poverty, integration and women’s rights and portrayed the living conditions of the working class. Her work is also characterized by avant-garde elements of “New Vision” and made an important contribution to the depiction of progressive educational methods, modernist architecture and modern dance.

Edith Tudor-Hart, *1908 in Vienna, +1973 in Brighton.

The book looks at how the manifold forms of fractures in the fragile yet culturally vibrant Arab region are reflected by artists in fïlm and photography. This book examines selected works by Ali Cherri, Randa Mirza and Tanya Traboulsi in greater detail.
Ali Cherri addresses not only the question of how we can live with and in the wake of violence, pain and insecurity, but also the role played by the imagination. In his feature film “The Dam” he develops a universal approach to temporary, spatial and material fragments by interweaving them into a poetic narrative.
Rather than directly depicting violence, Randa Mirza follows the visual and emotional traces that it leaves on both the individual and the collective memory. Her work invites viewers to reflect on their own position as witnesses within a shared visual memory, where perception becomes an ethical and political act.
Tanya Traboulsi reflects visually on the very personal topics of identity, belonging and memory. Her works are more concerned with beauty than destruction. Her images are full of nostalgia and poetry as she points to the challenges of Beirut’s past, as well as to recent urban changes and infrastructural issues.
The book tells the stories of the people who (have to) deal with fractures and violence and commemorates losses and experiences of fragility but also opens up to imagination, poetry and dreams.