IACCCA

From late summer 2025, the Helmut Newton Foundation will be showing masterful historical photographs from the Collection Fotografis, combining them in a fascinating juxtaposition with photos by Helmut Newton from its own archive. Comprising more than four hundred photographs, Bank Austria’s Collection Fotografis is one of the outstanding international photo collections. It spans a history from the pioneering days of the medium in the nineteenth century to Pictorialism and straight photography, and to experimental works from the avant-gardes of the twentieth century as well as contemporary photographs.

In recent years, the Helmut Newton Foundation has, in addition to solo and thematic group exhibitions, twice shown presentations of photo collections. The exhibition cooperation with Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien follows up on this, if in a different form: the pictures come in pairs. Sometimes the affinity between two photographs is formal, sometimes it is thematic; occasionally, the combination also seems rather casual and odd—which leaves viewers more room for interpretation and association, for the workings of their own imagination.
Each pair of images shows two facets of humanness, life, time, and society. The images are both complementary and conflicting. They appear exemplary and yet unique.

The exhibition Dialogues: Collection Fotografis × Helmut Newton is a cooperation of Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien and the Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin. It is curated by Bettina M. Busse, curator at Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien, and Matthias Harder, director of the Helmut Newton Foundation.