SALZBURG.- The work of the Austrian-British exile photographer Edith Tudor-Hart (1908 - 1973) is shown in the exhibition »A Steady Eye in Turbulent Times« in an extensive retrospective.

In recent years, the FOTOHOF>ARCHIVE has been given all the negatives still in existence, an extensive collection of vintage prints and her scrapbook (an account of her publication activities), which are now being presented to the public for the first time.

Edith Tudor-Hart (née Edith Suschitzky) was a central protagonist of social documentary photography between 1930 and 1955. She drew attention to social grievances, dealt with topics such as poverty, integration and women's rights and depicted the living conditions of the working class. Her work was influenced by the Neues Sehen [New Vision] style and made an important contribution to the depiction of progressive educational methods, modernist architecture and modern dance. Coming from a Jewish family in Vienna and a staunch communist, her life was marked by political persecution and personal misfortune. Throughout her life, Edith Tudor-Hart fought against the rise of fascism and the marginalization of minorities, combining personal attitudes with the social image of her time in her work.

Members of the Suschitzky and Donat families from England also attended the opening. From them the FOTOHOF>ARCHIV has previously received the entire estate of Wolf Suschitzky (whose work the FOTOHOF has already exhibited in 2020) as well as the estate of his sister Edith Tudor-Hart. In the archive in Salzburg the works of the siblings are now reunited, both of whom had to leave Austria at the time of the rise of fascism and subsequently lived in England as photographers.

After a highly acclaimed retrospective in Edinburgh and Vienna (2013) this exhibition is presented at the FOTOHOF for the first time which was compiled from the now complete collection of around 10,000 negatives. In the course of the preparations, numerous previously unknown vintage prints (these are pictures enlarged by Edith Tudor-Hart herself), which now form a large part of the exhibits.

The processing of this material in the FOTOHOF>ARCHIVE has been received with great interest, especially in English-speaking countries. For this reason, two publications with the newly digitized images and current texts can already be presented at the opening:

• Poverty for Sale. Edith Tudor-Hart in Britain. Ed. by Shirley Read. - Edinburgh 2024

• Leyla Daybelge and Stefanie Pirker: through a bauhaus lens. Edith Tudor-Hart and Isokon. - London 2024

Following the exhibition, the FOTOHOF>ARCHIV will also publish a retrospective illustrated book on Edith Tudor-Hart.