Walter Niedermayr:Civil Operations

by Franz Xaver Baier, Marion Piffer-Damiani, Walter Niedermayr (Artist)

Whether Walter Niedermayr takes pictures in the openness of a lonely alpine landscape or in the tightly controlled, cramped conditions of a closed institution, the concrete topographical references in his pictures always evaporate. Characterized by a diffuse light that illuminates spaces and colors, stretched between the visible and the invisible, his photographs reveal the various subtle qualities of spaces, from sober eeriness to poetic delimitation. The artist confronts the viewer with the expansive imagery of a photographic series that has neither beginning nor end, offering views of space as seen through the life of passengers and inmates, hospital workers and waiting room attendants. This new book of Niedermayr's photographs features, for the first time, a selection of works from different series, including his views of hospitals, prisons, motorways and construction sites, and the alpine vistas that first brought him to international attention.

Hardcover

First published May 2, 2003