HERMAN SEIDL . about
Herman Seidl is a Salzburg/Europe based freelance photographer and short-filmmaker.
As a curator for photography he has been involved since 1983 in contributing to Fotohof Gallery
in Salzburg, Austria - a center dedicated to contemporary photography run by an artist collective.
He started his career as a photojournalist after studies at the Communication department of the University of Salzburg,
working for major Austrian newspapers. He continued with contributions to various magazines in Austria, Germany and
worked for two years in Milan, Italy as chief photographer and picture editor before specializing in architecture and
corporate photography.
From 1996 to 2011 Herman was an assistant lecturer for photography at the University of Salzburg at the Department of
Communication Science; since 2001 he is a permanent assistant professor at the Multi Media Department of Salzburg
University of Applied Arts.
From 2012 to 2017 he was part of the cultural advisory board to the government of Salzburg.
At the same time Herman pursued his personal photography; workshops at the Photography and Studio Art program of
the Salzburg College by Dieter Appelt, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Doug Stewart and especially Juan Fontcuberta formed
his artistic approach to photography – across the years different bodies of work emerged - most of them dealing with the
“error of the medium”. Blurred images, unsharpness, re-enacted errors by amateurs, missing subjects, errors that occur
in the darkroom apply a certain surrealism and give a way to new photographs.
It's like translating the Cadavre Exquis (note: the Surrealists made collective drawings in which they hid what they had
already drawn by folding it and then handed it further) into another dimension. I always call it productive
misunderstandings. In this way an object is enriched rather than deprived of quality.
(Tobias Rehberger)
Herman received cultural grants to Rome/Italy, Arizona/USA and Paris/France and his photographs and handmade books
are in public and private collections.