Heidi Harsieber (born 1948 in Gloggnitz) is an Austrian photographer who is known for her independent artistic work, and her portrait and documentary works of the Austrian art scene. She has exhibited across the country, and won the Cultural Award of Lower Austria for Media Art / Artistic Photography in 2023.
Life and work Heidi Harsieber completed an apprenticeship as a photographer in 1963–66 at the photography master class of Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna. In 1970, she was the youngest self-employed commercial photographer in Austria, and she has been working as an artist since the 1960s. At the Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien, she was head of the »Fotozentralwerkstätte« [central photography lab] from 1977 to 1985, and from 1991 to 2001 she taught documentary photography for conservators.
Harsieber was influenced by Ernst Hartmann, who was a teacher at 'Graphische'. As a tribute to his personality and body of work, she published a monograph in collaboration with Maren Gröning, who researched his life and work. This monograph also contains a section on Josef Matthias Hauer and contributions from former students.
In 1973, she was commissioned by Friedensreich Hundertwasser to photograph self-built and individually designed shacks and cabins in allotment gardens in Vienna. The planned book project did not come to fruition, but the photographs were shown in 2014 under the title "Peripheres Wohnen" at Galerie Ortner 2.
Critics have commented on Heidi Harsieber's photography, that 'she is a "great portraitist who deals with the body, with sexuality, pain and death', her 'eye for the incongruous in an ostensibly ordered world' and has a 'penchant for edges of all kinds', working in 'thematic loops' such as people and landscape studies, artist portraits, material and object studies, self-portraits, body studies and performances and places and spaces.
Astrid Peterle writes in the publication FacingAustria: 'Heidi Harsieber's photography is characterised by an inquisitive, sensual and psychologically motivated approach to human beings. She approaches the subjects in her photographs with great affection'. Manisha Jothady, in a review of Harsieber's book always well behaved, stated that her images, 'vividly express the reflection on illness, pain and transience in conflict with the desire for vitality, youth and beauty'. Jothady sees Harsieber's photography in the context of feminist artists of the 1970s, on the one hand because of her 'fragmentary representation of the self, which seems to be in a constant state of transition', and on the other hand, because Harsieber seeks to initiate a dialog with herself through her attempts to inscribe her own body in the surrounding space, which serves self-perception and self-positioning.
In an Ö1 radio item Anna Soucek said, "Blurred bodies can often be seen in [her] photos, or only individual body parts, sometimes with props - as blurred as the boundaries between eroticism, pain, illness and transience in Heidi Harsieber's work."
Works by Heidi Harsieber can be found in these public collections: Albertina, Federal Photography Collection, Vienna; Landesmuseum Niederösterreich, St. Pölten; OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH (Francisco Carolinum), Linz; Vienna Museum, Vienna; Art Collection of the arts department of the City of Vienna, MUSA, Vienna; Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna. Extensive permanent loans from the artist can be found in the Fotohof>ARCHIV.
Exhibitions (selection) 2025: Quer durch. Ein Leben mit der Fotografie, Landesgalerie Niederösterreich, Kremshttps://www.kunstmeile.at/de/ausstellungen/heidi-harsieber 2022: HAND.KAMERA, Francisco Carolinum, Linz 2021: WERKSCHAU XXVI: Heidi Harsieber – und immer warten sie, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna 2020: Einblicke – Künstler und ihr Partner / Trash, Fotohof>ARCHIV, Salzburg 2020: Love has changed, not so desire, Charim Events, Vienna 2019: links und rechts die Nacht, Lia Wolf Cabinett, Vienna (Part of FOTO WIEN) 2018: Raum mit Licht, Wien – in cooperation with Friedl Kubelka 2014: Einblicke, Belvedere, Spitzhof, Vienna 2014: Peripheres Wohnen, Ortner 2, Vienna 2010: Sportfotos, Lia Wolf Cabinett, Vienna (Part of eyes on, Monat der Fotografie) 2010: exposed, FOTOHOF, Salzburg 2009: Rutland Gate, Christine König Gallery, Vienna 2008: Monika, Herbert, and forever more they wait, Lolapoloza Project Space, Oxford (GB) – in cooperation with Bernadette Huber 2005: Love has changed, not so desire, Open Studio, Vienna – Exhibition at the atelier including live music by Franz Koglmann and Peter Herbert 1981: Heidi Harsiebers Holland, Slide show and sound collage in cooperation with Franz Koglmann, Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien 1975: Fotoserie abstrakter Dias, Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna
Group exhibitions (selection) 2021: Wilde Kindheit, Lentos Art Museum, Linz 2018: Women.Now, Austrian Cultural Forum New York City (USA) 2017: Die Kraft des Alters, Unteres Belvedere, Vienna 2017: ÖsterreichBilder, Salzburg Museum, Salzburg 2015: Schlaflos. Das Bett in Geschichte und Gegenwartskunst, 21er Haus, Vienna 2014: Selbstauslöser , Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Salzburg, 2011: Absolut Wien, Vienna Museum, Vienna 2010: ich ist ein anderer, Landesmuseum NÖ, St. Pölten 2009: Lebensform Wittgenstein, Haus Wittgenstein, Vienna 2007: body talk, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna
Awards 2023: Cultural Award of Lower Austria for Media Art / Artistic Photography 2026: Art Prize by the State of Austria for Artistic Photography
Books 2021: Das ist – Über die Jahre. Fotografie als Abbild und Konstruktion. With a text by Ferdinand Schmatz. Edited by Lia Wolf. Vienna: Schlebrügge.Editor. 2021: WERKSCHAU XXVI: Heidi Harsieber – und immer warten sie. With a text by Michaela Lindinger. Fotobuch 63/2021. Vienna: FOTOGALERIE WIEN. 2017: FacingAustria. Edited by Rainer Iglar and Michael Mauracher. Salzburg: FOTOHOF>EDITION. 2014: EINBLICKE. Künstler und ihre Partner. With texts by Agnes Husslein and Maria Christine Holter. Salzburg: FOTOHOF>EDITION. 2009: always well behaved. with text by Ferdinand Schmatz and an interview by Maren Gröning. Edited by Rainer Iglar and Michael Mauracher. Salzburg: Fotohof>EDITION.
as Editor 2025: Heidi Harsieber – Werner Kuntschik. In cooperation with Berthold Ecker. Vienna: Schlebrügge.Editor.
2020: Ernst Hartmann 1907–1983: ‚brennen!, nur darauf kommt es an‘. In cooperation with Maren Gröning. Vienna: Schlebrügge.Editor.
References
External links Image-Collections by Heidi Harsieber at FOTOHOF>ARCHIV Sports images by Heidi Harsieber from the documentary project FacingAustria Film and lecture accompanying the exhibition WERKSCHAU at Fotogalerie Wien Re-Staging of Harsieber's slide show Trash accompanied by an musical improvisation by Franz Koglmann and Peter Herbert, 2020