Heimat Photography and the Austrian Landscape

Elizabeth Cronin, Robert B. Menschel Curator of Photography, New York Public Library

The Heimat (homeland) movement advocated for the landscape and its preservation, while it also encouraged national pride. This talk explores the importance of the Austrian landscape during the 1920s and 30s, when Austrian photographers began defining their Heimat with images of age-old mountains, pious peasants, and the modern Alpinism, thereby countering the fragility of a newly-formed Austria.