Born February 25, 1964, in Vienna, is an Austrian photographer specializing in nude, portrait, and travel photography, as well as a musician.

Life and Work

Bitesnich completed compulsory secondary education and trained as a retail salesman, initially working in the sale of electrical appliances. In 1988, he began photographing as a self-taught practitioner and rose to international prominence as a photographer during the 1990s. In 1998, he published his first photobook devoted to nude photography, Nudes, for which he received the Kodak Photography Book Award. Numerous further publications followed. His work has been shown in many solo and group exhibitions, and in 2014 a major retrospective accompanied by a catalog was presented at Kunst Haus Wien.

In addition to photography, Bitesnich is active as a musician. As a teenager, he played in a punk band. In 2004, he co-founded the music project Soundhotel together with singer and songwriter Mani Obeya, producing pop and soul music. The duo released the albums Your Place (2004, Universal) and Between Love and Disaster (2006, Room 5 Records). After a hiatus of seventeen years—partly due to Bitesnich’s focus on his photographic career—they returned to work on a third album, released in 2024 under the title And the World Rushed In. Bitesnich also collaborates with Viennese gynecologist Andreas Nather in the music project Stereofoundation, contributing melodies to their compositions.

Bitesnich lives in a house in Breitenbrunn am Neusiedler See, where he also operates a recording studio.

Photography

The central focus of Bitesnich’s artistic practice is nude photography. Initially working exclusively in black and white, he has also produced color nudes since 1999. His male and female nudes are characterized by strong graphic abstraction and heightened sculptural qualities, achieved through precise control of lighting and the treatment of body surfaces. His compositions often feature unusual bodily arrangements and dynamic groupings, frequently using dancers, athletes, and acrobats as models due to their physical flexibility.

Travel photography is another significant component of Bitesnich’s work. Rather than adhering to conventional travel imagery, he develops a distinctive visual language that challenges clichés of the genre. He has traveled extensively, including to countries such as India, engaging deeply with different cultural contexts. A major long-term project centers on global metropolises and has resulted in a series of books, including New York City (2011), Tokyo (2012), Paris (2013), Vienna (2015), Berlin (2017), and Lisbon. These predominantly black-and-white photographs portray each city through carefully observed details rather than iconic landmarks.

As a portrait photographer, Bitesnich has photographed numerous prominent figures, including Anthony Quinn, Philip Glass, Reinhold Messner, Til Schweiger, Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Till Brönner, and Pelé. His oeuvre also includes fashion and advertising photography as well as video and commercial film work.

Reference

Biography text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), German edition.
Retrieved January 19, 2026.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_H._Bitesnich