Wintersportvakantie in Semmering, Oostenrijk Possibly 1930 - 1932

These photographs of Wintersportvakantie in Semmering, Oostenrijk, were likely taken by Berti Hoppe on holiday. I can just imagine the artist, on holiday, taking these pictures and carefully placing them in the album. It is very charming. The album page is a canvas, and I see three different landscapes – snowy houses nestled in the hills, a melting river next to a wooden bridge, and a small village under forested mountains. I appreciate this traditional art of documentation. What a beautiful, ordinary record of where this person has been. What makes this so captivating to me is how Hoppe has arranged them on the page. The photos are like building blocks, carefully placed and layered to create a new story and composition. There is a relationship between photography and painting; both capture a moment in time. It reminds me of other artists who use photography in their work. Hoppe and these other artists all participate in an ongoing conversation about images and memory.