The 1. Elfriede Mejchar Award for Photography was awarded to LISA RASTL.
To commemorate the extraordinary photographic work of Elfriede Mejchar, her heirs – Susanne Gamauf, Charlotte Gohs, Fritz Simak, Katalin, and Robert Zahornicky – established the Elfriede Mejchar Award for Photography. The aim is to promote art and culture, and photography in particular, and to keep her work alive and remembered through the exploration of Elfriede Mejchar's photographic work. The award, endowed with € 7,000, is awarded every two years and is linked to an exhibition of the winner's work at Wolkersdorf Castle in the Weinviertel region. Photographers who hold Austrian citizenship or have been permanently resident in Austria for three years and whose photographic work – in the spirit of Elfriede Mejchar's work – explores the essence of photography in its specific medium is eligible to apply.
The first Elfriede Mejchar Award for Photography was awareded to Lisa Rastl on Saturday, April 13, 2024 at the Lower Austrian State Gallery in Krems during the opening of the exhibition "Elfriede Mejchar: Crossing the Borders of Photography". The laudatory speech was given by Ruth Horak, freelance curator, author, and lecturer for contemporary art and photography.
About Lisa Rastl
Born in 1974 in Lower Austria / Mödling; lives and works in Vienna and Burgenland. Married to the artist and choreographer Willi Dorner. Their daughter was born in 1995. From 1988 to 1991 she trained as a photographer at the Höhere Graphische BLVA, Vienna. She graduated with a master's degree in 1993; in 1994 she attended the Friedl Kubelka School of Art Photography. From 2006 to 2014 she studied textual sculpture with Heimo Zobernig at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; she graduated with distinction. Since 1993 she has worked as a freelance photographer and artist. From 1995 she collaborated with Willi Dorner. From 2000 to 2010 she set up and headed the photography department at the mumok Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (from 2006 she headed it jointly with Leni Deinhardstein). Since 2019, she has been collaborating with curator Ruth Horak and artists Caroline Heider and Claudia Rohrauer. Since 2021, she has been setting up and directing the analogue photography workshop at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, together with Claudia Rohrauer.
Jury statement
The first Elfriede Mejchar Prize goes to an artist whose photographic biography bears clear parallels to the prize's patron. Both photographed on commission for public institutions, their primary focus was on the effective reproduction of diverse works of art—which required technical expertise and a trained eye—and for both, professional photography was an important stimulus for a free artistic practice. Lisa Rastl intensifies this connection by reflecting on the "art-reproducing" situation and making it the subject of her independent work. To the jury's surprise, among the 184 submissions were nine submissions from photographers under the age of 26, the majority from students at the Ortweinschule in Graz, a vocational college with a department of art and design similar to the "Graphische" (graphic arts) in Vienna. Impressed by the quality of these submissions, the jury – in the spirit of Elfriede Mejchar, who has always followed the work of much younger colleagues with great interest – spontaneously decided to invite three of the young talents to the stage with honorable mentions!
Honorable Mentions 2024
Lea Blagojević was born in Graz in 1999. In June 2022, she graduated from the evening photography course at the Ortweinschule in Graz. She is currently studying conference interpreting at the Karl-Franzens University of Graz and works as a freelance photographer. In her diploma thesis, "Ni na nebu ni na zemlji," she explores her Croatian heritage and the topic of identity. The title is inspired by the story of the same name, which tells of a castle that, instead of standing on solid ground, floats on a cloud. In Croatian, this phrase is used to describe a person or thing that is neither here nor there. Childhood memories can effortlessly reawaken a specific moment in our past. For Marcel Proust, it was the madeleine that transported him back to his childhood—for Lea Blagojević, it is daffodils, Šampita, or Domačica biscuits.
Zoe Ebner was born in Vienna in 2004 and lives in Graz, where she completed her photography training at the HTBLVA Ortweinschule in 2023. She is currently studying art history and working as an intern at the Neue Galerie Graz. Between work and studies, she maintains a small space for her artistic work, which she fills with the help of photography and poetry. In her diploma thesis, "Stillstand," she explores the archiving of the present through photography. Through the conscious perception of her surroundings and her own view of them, she allows us, the viewer, to share in her perception. Over a period of one year, she makes the camera her constant companion and shows photographs of people, objects, and details that are often overlooked in everyday life.
Niklas Putz was born in 1997 and grew up in the Southeast Styria district. He graduated from the Fine Art Photography and Multimedia Art program at the HTBLVA Ortweinschule in Graz in 2023. He now works as a freelance photographer and studies art history on the side. His life has shifted, both personally and professionally, from the countryside to the small city of Graz. In his diploma thesis, "In Plain Sight," he explores the everyday, man-made, and the possibilities of digital photography. The images create a new photographic reality that distances itself from reality and casts doubt on the viewer's imagery. Technically, the images are created using a digital camera combined with a view camera. Thanks to the capabilities of the view camera, most of the images are not individual shots, but are composed of several.