November 6, 2023 Jury prize at Schömberger Fotoherbst
Robert Rutöd is winner of the jury prize at the 17th edition of Schömberger Fotoherbst for his series Hill of Crosses.
Schömberg is a spa town in the north of the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The Schömberger Fotoherbst (Schömberg Photo Autumn), which has been held since 1998, is a festival for serial travel and reportage photography that is organized every two years by the municipality of Schömberg and the Fotoherbst team. Robert Rutöd has been invited to exhibit his series Hill of Crosses from October 8 to November 5, 2023. The prize, endowed with 3,000 Euros includes the purchase of the winning series by the municipality.
"The Baltic sky stretches out eternally, reaching out to meet the green expanse of the meadows below. Amidst this vast landscape in northern Lithuania there rises a small hill. They call it the Hill of Crosses. It's a pilgrimage site with some unique symbolism. It's Sunday now, and the pilgrims are out in full force. It is said that leaving a cross at this location will bring someone luck, and there are many devotional items being sold here. Both small and large crucifixes are planted in the ground and they line the path from the parking lot to the mountain. Nearby, refreshments are sold, and you have the choice of cooled Gira (a Lithuanian beverage, made from bread) and espresso to go, served from a mobile café set up in a car trunk. A talent for improvisation also manifests in the open-air confession. Simple folding chairs turn into confessionals, and perhaps it is just a coincidence that today, only women are seeking a sympathetic ear for their sins." – Excerpt from the exhibition catalogue text, read more about Hill of Crosses.
October 3, 2023 Super 8
Super 8 film material that was thought to be lost was recently rediscovered during cleanup work in a basement. Stored under the worst possible conditions, the film rolls survived the decades surprisingly unscathed. The material, originally shot in 1983 for an experimental documentary about Vienna, was digitally sampled in 2K resolution and edited into short, standalone clips.
November 1, 1983 – Police officers direct traffic on All Saints' Day in front of the Wiener Zentralfriedhof (Vienna Central Cemetery, one of the largest cemeteries in the world)
Still from May 1, 1983 – Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky and the Mayor of Vienna Leopold Gratz, International Workers’ Day Vienna
November 11, 2022 Retrospective Helsinki Photo Festival 2018-2022 + David Lynch's Infinite
This year, Helsinki Photo Festival celebrates its fifth anniversary with two extraordinary exhibitions: The retrospective show featuring artists from more than fifty countries and the must-see Infinite Deep exhibition by David Lynch – From November 4, 2022 to February 28, 2023
The retrospective exhibition of the festival presents all the themes displayed from 2018 to 2022: Love, Anarchy, Trust, Fearless and Believe, as well as three popup solo exhibitions by Dilla Djalil-Daniel, Arianne Clément and Carl-Mikael Ström. The Infinite Deep exhibition showcases the surreal photography of David Lynch for the first time in Finland! It is curated by Danish photographer Christian Nørgaard, who has exclusive access to David Lynch’s photo archives. Both exhibitions will take place at the Helsinki West Terminal 1 in Jätkäsaari from November 4, 2022 to February 28, 2023.
The exhibitions will take place in Helsinki’s iconic Länsiterminaali 1. The now-decommissioned ferry passenger terminal was used for decades for travels between Finland and Estonia. Designed by Gunnar Taucher, the building was completed as a port warehouse in 1941. In 1992, it was decided to convert the building into a passenger terminal serving Tallinn’s shipping traffic and it was opened on May Day 1995. Currently, the building is planned to be demolished and replaced by a new, taller terminal building by 2026. Meanwhile, the Helsinki Photo Festival will take over part of the building and convert it for several months into a cultural hub – a democratic space for celebrating photography and visual culture.
The International Photo Festival, Israel's largest photo event, took place for the seventh time this year in Tel Aviv. It presented 40 exhibitions on topics such as Photography Pioneers on the first female photographers in Israel, We Have Bare Hands, honoring the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, as well as performances, workshops, artist talks, concerts and much more.
The festival was organized by PHOTO IS:RAEL, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the art of photography in Israel and abroad. "For us photography is a language. It is the language in which we speak, communicate, and argue" summarizes the festival, directed and co-founded by Eyal Landesman, on its website.
Exhibition venue at Azrieli Sarona Tower, the tallest building in Israel
Each year the festival takes place at a different location and chooses a different main theme. In 2019, two large floors in the almost 240-metre-high Azrieli Sarona Tower could be used. The main theme was Fantasy. Starting from its original meaning in Greek - appearance, imagination - the term was illuminated by a variety of interpretations.
Exhibition of the series Fair(y) Tales at PHOTO IS:RAEL – The festival attracted more than 20,000 visitors in 10 days
„It’s fascinating to see each artist’s different approach to the topic of fantasy“, says Maya Anner, who invited Robert Rutöd's series Fair(y) Tales to the festival. In his first solo exhibition in Israel, curated by Ya'ara Raz Haklai, the photographer takes visitors on a journey through the burlesque realm of trade fairs, a world of must-haves and megatrends. In a kind of parallel universe, a new, contemporary design of the Garden of Eden is created. In an artist talk on the theme Between Dreams and Reality, Comedy and Tragedy, he explained the motif in his works: "It‘s all about doubt! The doubt of what is right or wrong, true or not, beautiful or ugly, dream or reality." The exhibition was created in collaboration with the Austrian Cultural Forum in Tel Aviv.
Artist talk at PHOTO IS:RAEL with Merav Maroody and Robert Rutöd
The festival attracted more than 20,000 visitors in 10 days, a confirmation that with exciting exhibitions, an attractive location and a varied supporting programme, an audience can be won far beyond a museum’s circle of visitors. PHOTO IS:RAEL could therefore very well serve as a model for a corresponding festival in Austria.
October 17, 2019 FOMO – Festival for contemporary photography
It's February 2019, photography is currently celebrating its 180th anniversary, when photographer Ana Radulovic had a spontaneous inspiration: Why not organize a photo festival in Graz? Eight months and countless hours of work later, the dream has become reality.
The FOMO Graz festival was successfully opened last weekend. One month there is the opportunity to take a very special walk through the city: large-format photographs by 56 photographers are shown at 66 locations in public space. Robert Rutöd is represented with works from his series Fair(y) Tales at Murinsel, an artificial floating island in the middle of the Mur river.
And because the organizers attach particular importance to accessibility, there is an acoustic image description for all photographs, which can be called up via a QR code with the mobile phone.
Exhibition space Murinsel, a landmark of Graz designed by New York City artist Vito Acconci on the occasion of the city becoming the 2003 European Capital of Culture
Today is the last day of the very successful Helsinki Photo Festival, which has been attracting thousands of photo enthusiasts throughout the city for nine weeks now. The main exhibition continues to attract a large audience every day at the Old Customs House in Katajanokka.
The theme of this year's festival is Anarchy, which is honored in numerous exhibitions, both indoor and outdoor. Nine large-scale photographs are on display from Robert Rutöd's series Right Time Right Place.
The Helsinki Photo Festival is a non-profit association and cultural event in Greater Helsinki, artistic director is Rafael Rybczynski. The festival program included exhibitions, artist talks, workshops and seminars.
Street Jungle is a limited edition of 400, numbered and signed by the editor and curator Marco Savarese
August 22, 2019 Street Jungle
The last issue of Eyeshot Magazine entitled Street Jungle dedicated a whole chapter to the winners of the Italian Street Photo Festival, which was held in April 2019 in Rome. Robert Rutöd's awarded photograph Woman in Red Dress from the series Right Time Right Place is part of this lavishly designed publication. Founded by Marco Savarese in 2017, its main focus is street photography in terms of language and as an art form.
Street Jungle: 186 pages, Fedrigoni X-PER Premium White paper.
"From cover to back, this magazine screams 'top notch'! The print and paper used are great, and give the reader a good experience" (Spyros Papaspyropoulos, StreetHunters)
July
8, 2019 Surreal Estate
Images from Robert Rutöd's series Right Time Right Place were selected for the magazine just published in the theme Surreal Estate.
Float Photo Magazine in collaboration with Casual Science collected photographs of surreal scenes found in the world around us. Selected images have been made into a series of postcards and a zine that seemingly hail from another reality, exploring the surreal reality all around us.
Float Photo Magazine was founded in March 2014 by Dana Stirling and Yoav Friedlander and with the goal of sharing and celebrating the photographic work of a versatile roster of contemporary photographers from around the world.
Surreal Estate Zine Publication, 5.5” x 8.5”, paperback, 32 pages (Photo: Piroschka from the series Right Time Right Place)
April
28, 2019 Italian Street Photo Festival
Robert Rutöd received Single Photo Award, 2nd place, for a photograph from the series Right Time Right Place at Italian Street Photo Festival.
The festival's aim is promoting and supporting contemporary street photography. Held from April 26 to 28, 2019 in the city of Rome, the international event offered a tightly packed program with exhibitions, seminars, workshops, portfolio reviews, photowalks and talks. Eyeshot Magazine, one of the most ambitious projects in Italy, will dedicate an entire edition to the winners of the festival.
May
2, 2018 Inside the surprisingly weird world of
trade fairs
From funerals to erotica, every industry has
its own trade show. Robert Rutöd has spent 10 years documenting
the unconventional side of conventions, honing in on magic moments
that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Robert’s journey to this point started, innocuously
enough, during his training as a mechanical engineer. The 16-year-old
came across a thick book on the subject of surrealism, introducing
him to the artistic breadth of photography. “It transported me from
a boring world of norms and formulas, in which much was impossible,
to an exciting art world where everything seemed possible,” he says
now ... Continue
reading at Huck
Funeral Fair - Undertakers' fashion show, from
the series Fair(y)
Tales
Launched in 2006, Huck is a bi-monthly magazine, website
and video platform. It celebrates independence: people and movements
that paddle against the flow. Inspired by radical youth culture,
Huck roams the globe seeking out artists, activists and creative
renegades who are breaking down the old world to build something
new. It has been recognized for its style of exploring
subcultures as entry points for articles about music, politics
and places all over the world. It is published by London-based
media company TCOLondon.
April
4, 2018 Cork Photo Festival - J Book Show
Robert Rutöd's book Right Time Right Place
has been selected to be shown in Cork, Ireland at J Book Show.
Organized by Photobook Show, a Brighton-based arts
organisation, J Book Show will take place at Lewis Glucksman Gallery
on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th of April 2018. The show is part
of the Cork Photo Festival. The festival began in 2014 as an artist
led initiative, highlighting local photographers in venues across
Cork City. The Cork Photo team curates exhibitions by both local
and international artists and bring together independent galleries,
arts organisations, individuals and collectives all wishing to exhibit
and celebrate photography.
"With
each double page dedicated to one of fifty-five photographs,
this book is an excellent example of a self-published contemporary
photography book. Great care has clearly been taken to edit
and layout the work, with a page providing context into the
series that many books seem to lack." (GHOST
magazine, UK)
Editor Owen Pritchard
from the renowned London-based magazine It’s Nice That caught
up with Robert Rutöd to find out more about Fair(y)
Tales. Read, what inspired him to start shooting at trade fairs
and what are his future plans for the project.
"From time immemorial,
there has been a yearning for a heavenly life, for a place where
everything is in a perfect state. In the Middle Ages, man was
content with the idea of eternal life and a few amenities, but
modern man is much more demanding in this area. He expects excellence
in every sphere of life! Exhibition halls are the perfect place
to satisfy these expectations ..." Continue reading at It's Nice That
An almost ten-year expedition
through the burlesque realm of trade fairs and exhibition areas is
visually retold in Robert Rutöd's Fair(y) Tales (Photo: Baby
Fair from the series Fair(y)
Tales)
Founded in 2007, It’s Nice That has grown
across many platforms and reaches over a million people each month.
These include the website which is updated daily, a bi-annual magazine
Printed Pages, a summer symposium Here and the monthly Nicer Tuesdays
talks series. With a deep-rooted belief that creative inspiration
should be for everyone, the team endeavor to share work that spans
design, photography, art and fashion, with the widest possible audience.
September
28, 2017 Białystok Interphoto Festival
Robert Rutöd's
series Fair(y) Tales was
part of a screening of selected photographs, organized by the Polish
photo festival at Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic. The event
was accompanied by a concert of the renowned jazz formation
Skicki-Skiuk.
Białystok Interphoto is a cyclical festival
of high artistic standard, which takes place every two years in
the largest city in northeastern Poland. It includes not only exhibition
activities, but also meetings, lectures, workshops, multimedia
presentations, school competitions, activities combining photography
with music or literature, and city games. The activities are targeted
at recipients of all ages. The main theme of the festival, regardless
of its edition, is The Border, with all its associated dimensions,
from Genius Loci to areas of individual experience on the intellectual,
spiritual or experimental level.
Robert Rutöd received Honorable Mention at
Life Framer Photography Award for a photograph from his series Fair(y)
Tales.
Life Framer is a platform for discovering and celebrating
contemporary photography around the globe. It hosts an independent
award, supported by a growing community of photographers, designed
to champion creative culture on and offline. This time the award
was judged by Katerina
Stathopoulou,
curator at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. With a focus
on contemporary photography, she curates MoMA’s challenging
and varied collection of renowned artwork, as well as sitting on
award panels, and running portfolio reviews.
Agricultural Fair – Photo
shooting of the breeding catalog, from
the series Fair(y)
Tales
Here's what Katerina had to say about the photograph: "Robert’s
composition is an aptly quirky response to an idiosyncratic rural
scene – the photoshoot for a breeding catalog at an agricultural
fair. The composition is wonderfully creative, drawing back wide
enough to see the un-glamorous reality surrounding the highland vista
backdrop, and using a bull’s horn in the foreground as an unusual
and interesting framing device rather than presenting us with either
an empty gravel foreground or the expected building tops and sky.
It gives the image a delicious depth to juxtapose against the flat
photographic banner – a playful commentary on advertorial spin."
June
9, 2017 Screening at Photobook 3.0
After Moscow's Photobookfest the best video
works submitted to the FLIP Photobook Award are presented in Budapest.
Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeum screens them during Photobook 3.0 kiállítás
exhibition, from June 9 to 23, 2017.
The aim of the exhibition is to present the most interesting
books, new tendencies and the changes of the medium from year to
year. The Photobook exhibition series was founded by the Studio of
Young Photographers, the third event was organized and curated in
cooperation with MAMA photobooks. This years's focus is on the
different stages of a photobook’s life. There will be dummys and
prototypes representing the first steps. What is going to happen
after a book is ready? Book launch event, exhibition, reproduction,
publishing, marketing, crowdfunding, submit to festivals, awards,
opencalls, giveaway as gifts? One alternative which is very
playful, creative and fun part of a photobook’s life is a flip through
video.
Robert Rutöd's trailer for his book Right
Time Right Place is among the video
works to be screened during Photobook 3.0 in Budapest, Hungary
Robert Rutöd's book Right Time Right
Place will be on display at the 28th edition of the Jerusalem
International Book Fair,
Israel.
First held in 1963, the Jerusalem International Book
Fair is a unique biennial event. Many heads of renowned publishing
houses, agents, sales personnel, foreign rights representatives,
editors and authors take part. The display hosts about 250
publishers from Israel and abroad, presenting local and international
contemporary books.
The event takes place from June 11 to 15, 2017
in the cultural center The First Station, a renovated original
railway station located in the heart of Jerusalem.
April
24, 2017 Milky Way in PhotoBookAthens’ collection
The book Milky Way is now part of PhotoBookAthens’
collection, a growing collection and an ongoing project by Hellenic
Centre for Photography (HCB)
that promotes and showcase photobooks and books about photography.
To provide online access to the photobooks
archive to as many people as possible via the Internet, HCB is
cataloguing all of the books that have been submitted to the photobook
show as part of the Athens Photo Festival since 2015. All contributed
titles will be made available to the public through a dedicated website and
are included in the library (the physical location) in Athens.
In recognition of the increasing importance of the
photo book in contemporary photographic practices, PhotoBookAthens'
aim is to promote
and showcase a wide variety of photobooks, photobooks
independently or commercially published and distributed. This include
handmade, self-published, book dummies, exhibition catalogues, print-on-demand
books, zines and limited edition photography books.
The PhotoBookAthens’ collection is developed and managed by
the Hellenic Centre for Photography.
In the northern part of the country the sky is heavily
clouded. Throughout the course of the night the light rain will spread
further west, reaching the coast only in isolated areas, temperature
falls to 16 to 14 degrees. On Saturday the weather in Aukštaitija
will be cloudy, then we will have longer sunny periods with a few
cumulus clouds. The wind turns south to south-east and becomes increasingly
moderate. Around noon clouds are breaking up all over the country,
and shortly the sun begins to shine through.
In the afternoon hours, the showers reappear. Then
violent thunderstorms could come, bringing squalls and heavy rain.
Particularly in the Kaunas region, heavy rains are expected with
up to 70 liters of rainfall per square meter. In the evening it will
be cloudy and mostly dry. Weak to moderate wind from the east, the
temperature reaches 13 to 15 degrees on the coast, and in the interior
12 to 14 degrees. On Sunday the sun shines throughout Lithuania.
December
14, 2016 Battle of Austerlitz
On 3 December 2016, the famous battle of 1805
was re-enacted by about a thousand participants in period uniforms
at the original location in the Czech Republic. "Lots of exciting
encounters! I think Napoleon Bonaparte dances the waltz better
than Tsar Alexander I." says Robert Rutöd, who was among the visitors
– But see for yourself...
November
23, 2016 Feria de Libros de Fotos de Autor
Robert Rutöd's book Right Time Right Place
will be exhibited at the 15th edition of the photobook fair
FELIFA from November 23 to 27, 2016 in Buenos Aires, Argentinia.
FELIFA – Feria de Libros
de Fotos de Autor – is a meeting of photographers,
publishers, artists, designers and the public dedicated to promote
editorial training, encourage production and disseminate photography
books. Celebrating its 15th
edition this year, the scheduled program features a series presentations,
mini-courses, workshops, and reviews, all of which are designed to
explore the trends and developments that are shaping the photobook
movement.
November
18, 2016 Indie Photobook Library acquired by
the
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
The Indie Photobook Library is a collection of over
2,000 self-published and indie-published photo-books that promotes,
showcases, and preserves photobook formats like photography exhibition
catalogs, print-on-demand photobooks, artist books, zines, photobooks
printed on newsprint, limited edition photobooks, and non-English
language photography books.
Larissa Leclair started
the Indie Photobook Library in 2010. It was first inspired by Leclair's
frustration with not having a centralized place to find self-published
photobooks. Leclair regularly organized exhibits drawn from the collection
and it has traveled within the U.S., and to Canada, Guatemala, China,
Mexico, the Philippines, and Australia.
On display at photoSCHWEIZ from May 13 - 17, 2022 in the city of Zürich, Switzerland
September
15, 2016 Horse No. 45
At the entrance to a stretch of forest located in the Masuria region of northern Poland, there is a large, yellow sign warning visitors that the terrain from that point is unsafe: “Uwaga (Caution) – Dangerous Horses. Do Not Enter”. We are talking about the Tarpan which one should encounter here, once the dominant breed of wild horses in Europe until they were wiped out in the nineteenth century. Today’s Tarpan is a back-breeding of the Konik, a Polish landrace.
The ride along the bumpy, 6-mile road proceeded fairly uneventfully, no horses as far as the eye could see. The operator of the drinks kiosk in the village at the end of the forest explained that we just needed to be patient, because the animals would eventually show their faces. In fact, half-way back, a small herd majestically crossed the road and disappeared into the thicket, without taking much notice of us at all. We were ready to continue when a straggler showed up among the trees, planted itself in front of our vehicle and flared its nostrils at us in a threatening gesture.
It then took a few steps, rubbed itself against a young tree, and started playing with the branches, charging back and forth. The spectacle turned into something magical as the Tarpan paused for a moment with the foliage twisting around its hooves, neck, and head resembling a petrified mythical creature. Only later did I discover on the photo a brand on its back: the number 45.
September
14, 2016 Introduction to Robert Rutöd’s photography
The London-based photographer Ziemowit Maj
has given a lot of consideration to Robert Rutöd's photographs
and written a wonderful text for the blog SnappedAway.
Stay tuned: An interview that Robert gave to Ziemowit will be
released there next week.
"Robert’s work captivated me straight away, I
must admit. I like several things about it, but if I were to put
in a single sentence, what spoke to me most was his ability to conceal
difficult questions as simple, seemingly straightforward images on
the verge of the popular kind of street photography. He is also not
too fussed about putting on airs of aesthetically minded artist –
you won’t find him chasing “interesting light”, “sophisticated compositions”
or any other catch phrases meant to signify “high art”. It’s all
about the content, the action or index of the frame ..." SnappedAway
May 18, 2016 4th ViennaPhotoBookFestival
Robert Rutöd presents his latest publications and the recently released Collector’s Edition of Right Time Right Place.
Photobooks have experienced a real boom in the international art scene in recent years, as reflected in numerous festivals and auctions around the world. The ViennaPhotoBookFestival, launched by Anzenberger Gallery and OstLicht Gallery in 2013 has become Europe’s largest event of this type. The fourth edition of the festival is scheduled for June 11 and 12 at the Brotfabrik Wien. More than 80 exhibitors will put the spotlight on the photo book in all its facets as an artistic medium.
During this event, photography fans will be able to learn about current and upcoming photo books offered by the major publishers, find rarities, as well as purchase small, high-end editions directly from the artists. Robert Rutöd will be presenting his photo books Milky Way and Right Time Right Place. He will also be presenting the recently published Collector’s Edition of Right Time Right Place: an exclusively designed clamshell box for the photo book and limited edition prints that would make a precious gift or collectible.
On June 11 and 12, 2016 the
fourth edition of the ViennaPhotoBookFestival turns the Bread Factory
Vienna into a hotspot for photography lovers, photobook collectors,
artists, publishers and dealers once again
Dates:
Saturday, June 11, 2016, 10 am – 8 pm
Sunday, June 12, 2016, 10 am – 6 pm
Location:
Brotfabrik Wien – Anzenberger Gallery, OstLicht Galerie,
Photon Gallery, Gershon Gallery
Absberggasse 27, 1100 Vienna, Austria
February 19, 2016 Right Time Right Place –
Collector’s edition
Robert Rutöd presents a generously designed
release of his latest book together with a photograph in a limited
edition, produced in cooperation with Buchmanufaktur Christina
Petutschnigg.
Each clamshell box is a unique handmade piece and includes a signed copy of the book Right Time Right Place as well as a pigment print on laid paper that measures 42 x 30 cm. You can choose from three of the most popular titles from the series: Woman in Red Dress, Swan Lake and Trumpeter.
Pigment prints are characterized by high resistance to aging, haptic nobleness and outstanding anti-reflection behavior. Each pigment print is numbered and signed with a pencil on the back by the photographer.
In his photo project Robert Rutöd explores the paradox human in more than fifty sometimes tragicomic and macabre-looking images. An award-winning series about the challenge of being in the right place at the right time.
The Collector's Edition is limited with twenty-five copies per motif. Whether as a collector's item or exclusive gift, this special edition is a rare treasure that is worth discovering.
Robert Rutöd received Artist of the Year award at Dong Gang International Photo Festival 2015 for his series Right Time Right Place.
In conjunction with the award large-format photographs
from the project Right Time Right Place are shown in an exhibition, which runs until October 4, 2015 in Dong Gang Museum of Photography, Seoul, South Korea. Dong Gang International Photo Festival has been held every summer since 2002 and is playing a leading role by providing opportunities for both domestic and international photography.
Dong Gang Museum of Photography was opened in 2005 as Korea's first public museum of Photography. Dong Gang Museum of Photography is a big significance in terms of the second public museum of Photography in Asia after Tokyo Museum of Photography in Japan.
"Among the artists, Robert Rutöd was chosen as Artist of the Year. His series Right Time Right Place zoomed in on the novel form and context that is a result of a remarkable crossing of time and space. The artist is offering his critique about the fruitless believe that there is a right answer to being happy. His photographs are direct and frank yet infused with empathy for human existence and life itself." (Suejin Shin, artistic director of Dong Gang International Photo Festival 2015, excerpt from the exhibition catalogue)
Robert Rutöd has been invited to present his work on European Prospects, a project exploring questions of European identity and experience through contemporary photography.
Visual Explorations in an Undiscovered Continent is a collaborative project which uses photography and contemporary art to examine questions of identity and experience in an enlarged European Union. The core partners are Ffotogallery in Cardiff, Fotosommer Stuttgart, the Lithuanian Photographers Association in Kaunas and Le Château d’Eau in Toulouse. The project offers a new space for European artists and cultural agents to share experience and practice, and achieve wider exposure in Europe for their work. The programme has received financial support from the European Cultural Foundation, The European Union Culture Programme, Wales Arts International, the State Capital Stuttgart and Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden Württemberg.
Screenshot of the website europeanprospects.org, photographs fom the series Less Is More (2009)
Celebrating Europe –
Exhibtion catalogue, published by Lithuanian Photographers’ Association,
Kaunas Department
April 20, 2015 Celebrating Europe
On the occasion of Celebrating Europe, a catalogue was recently published. Right Time Right Place was part of the exhibition, which took place last year in Kaunas, Lithuania.
"One could regret such changes, try and conserve the past at least in photographs, but one could go further with an ironically serious face, trying to keep equilibrium between the borderless world connected by technologies and the cosy shelter of traditions as Thomas L. Friedman suggests in his book 'The Lexus and the Olive Tree'. Austrian Robert Rutöd seems to enjoy such a world. He is an archetype flâneur as if emerging from the history of photography, hunting for everyday moments, but noticing that they all have been faked: a photographer loaded with cameras cannot photograph like people holding guns cannot shot, blown up airplanes cannot fly and the swan stuck in ice cannot swim. There is nothing real left, only cheap cultural shams for consumers, for how could otherwise Hitler, John Paul II and Tito stay friendly next to each other, exept for becoming wine labels on lined up bottles? Rutöd who doubts the truths of photography and capitalism claims that the decisive moment means presence in wrong time or wrong space and asks whether this is the happiness one is looking for." (Excerpt from the catalogue essay by Agnė Narušytė)
Right Time Right Place at Celebrating Europe: The exhibition was part of the European Prospects programme and took pake place at Kaunas Photography Gallery and Meno Parkas Gallery from
September 5 to 20, 2014 in Kaunas, Lithuania
A few years ago, while working on my book "grayscales. early b&w photographs", I sifted through my entire b&w negative archive and came across further versions of the photo "Men with Ladder" taken in the 1980s, which had faded from my memory.
I was excited to find out whether the original decision to choose a particular photo would prove to be conclusive after such a long time. The photos show a couple of men in work clothes unloading long ladders from a truck and carrying them into the small courtyard of an apartment building, where they will erect a scaffold on the façade. For about half an hour I witnessed this pantomimic spectacle which seemed to follow its own fantastic choreography. Absolutely no fighting against the treachery of objects!
ENLARGE ON MOUSEOVER
Although two or three images were satisfactory in terms of their compositional quality, I finally chose a picture which also left a more mysterious impression
December
4, 2014 Photo Pop-Up store
From December 10-24, West46 will be transformed into a Photo Pop-Up store, where well known Viennese photographers will offer their works and books for sale.
Photographs, including limited editions, photo books, in part self-published and handmade, jewellery featuring photographs, photo cards and more will be available for purchase direct from the artists.
10% of proceeds will go to "Elisabeth Brot" to help the Elisabethinen which offers a hot meal to up to 120 people every day.
Small format prigment prints and Milky Way (Box Set 1 & 2) available at Photo Pop-Up store, from December 10-24, 2014 at West46 Gallery in Vienna, Austria – West46, Westbahnstrasse 46, 1070 Wien
The renowned blog Feature Shoot has chosen Swan Lake from the series Right Time Right Place as Photo du Jour.
"Robert Rutöd loves serendipity, irony and what happens when they converge. The Austrian-born photographer explores the concept to its’ fullest spectrum in his series Right Time Right Place. Wandering about Europe for 5 years, Rutöd observed and captured instances brimming with contradiction, often painfully funny or unexpectedly tragic. The series questions whether luck is imaginary and how strange it is to find oneself in the exactly wrong place when it happens to be just the right time to document it." (Jenna Garrett, Feature Shoot)
Feature Shoot showcases the work of international emerging and established photographers who are transforming the medium through compelling, cutting-edge projects. Photo: Swan Lake from the series Right Time Right Place
June 25, 2014 enjoy Vienna Magazine
Right Time Right Place and Less Is More are featured in the latest issue of enjoy Vienna magazine.
The magazine welcoming every passenger arriving in Vienna is more than just a guide for visitors. Business people, people interested in the arts and tourists alike - enjoy Vienna offers a cutting edge overview. enjoy Vienna gives an insight into the vibrant life of the city and informs about topics that are near and dear to the City of Vienna in both in English and German.
"Today the smartphone shutter release is pressed throughout the world 180,000 times per second. But not every click produces a worthwhile picture. How can I avoid imposing the same old boring images on my environment? ‘enjoy Vienna’ decided to find out by asking those who should know – Vienna’s street photographers and filmmakers, who regularly explore the city for surprising situations and unusual subjects." (enjoy Vienna, 07/2014)
Right Time Right Place is featured in the Volume 1 issue of NYPH Journal:
The Future of Contemporary Photography, published by powerHouse Books, New York.
NYPH Journal is a portal into the vast visual landscape that is contemporary photography. The journal focuses on the remarkable talents of photographers included in the The
New York Photo Awards and features those artists alongside commissioned essays and articles from taste-makers in contemporary fine art and documentary photography, photobooks, and beyond.
NYPH Journal is a clean and focused look at what the New York Photo Festival has always set out to showcase: The Future of Contemporary Photography.