The title of Kurt Bauer’s self-published portfolio of works from the past six years is Turista per Sempre (Forever a Tourist) – a phrase that quite fittingly reflects the Austrian photographer’s approach: “looking at places with the mindset of a visitor, whether far from home or just around the corner”, the photographer says. For Kurt, the art of image making has always been a way to stay attentive to what unfolds around him and to notice details that not everyone records. “What interests me most is the possibility of seeing the ordinary anew,” he says. “I often find myself returning to subjects that are easy to overlook – small traces of human presence, objects shaped by time, or moments when light briefly transforms an everyday scene into something unexpected.”
Rather than describing a place directly, Kurt’s still life scenes tend to feel like fragments of something larger at play. They do one thing very well – they make you incredibly curious about what’s sitting just beyond the frame. To achieve such a level of intrigue, Kurt is able to capture a story trapped somewhat within a singular moment: an untouched drink left on a table; an abandoned towel by the pool; or the remains of someone’s dinner spilt down a style of shoe that might tell us a lot about their character. His background in art direction and visual storytelling comes through in these seemingly pre-planned compositions – transferring his carefully constructed studio images to these quick observations made on the move.
“Regardless of the setting,” he says, “I’m interested in paying close attention and allowing room for chance. I’m drawn to photographs that leave room for ambiguity and allow memory, observation and imagination to overlap.” It’s through these movie-like shots that he aims to frame images that “tell me more about a place than a postcard view ever could,” he ends.