josef chladek

on photobooks and books

Karl Hoedl - Achtzehn Hochhäuser in Wels, Self published, 2016, Vienna

Hardcover, first edition of 300 of which 18 are special editions with print, signed. Text by Ingrid Oberndorfer.

"Following the idea of Ed Ruscha’s “Some Los Angeles Apartments” and “Twenty Six Gasoline Stations”, I have captured “Eighteen High Rise Buildings in Wels”. But I followed an opposite approach. My objective was to capture the hype in the late 1950s to build high rise buildings even in small cities like Wels as a proof of wealth and modernism. Nowadays there is a lot of criticism and polarization when it comes to the construction of such buildings in city centers.
At the same time, the residents of the high rise buildings in Wels are no longer aware of them living in high rise buildings, for them it's like every other building in town.
In my book I have captured the high rise buildings in a way you normally wouldn’t perceive them, so that residents looking at these images usually say something like, “I know this building, but I’ve never seen it like that”. I have turned their unconscious perception of the houses in a conscious one again." (Karl Hoedl)

Order At AnzenbergerGallery Bookshop.

Pages: 68
Place: Vienna
Year: 2016
Publisher: Self published
Size: 15 x 20 cm (approx.)