Moriz Nähr. Fotograf der Wiener Moderne / Photographer of Viennese Modernism

Moriz Nähr is among the most unconventional photographers of Viennese Modernism and is considered one of the most important innovators of photography in “Vienna around 1900”. Engaged by various commissioners, but also working as a freelance photographer, he left behind a multi-faceted oeuvre which traces an arc from landscape photography and portraiture via architectural photographs of “urban landscapes” to capturing the modern exhibition stagings of the Vienna Secession since 1898. Firmly embedded into the social and cultural network of Vienna, he had ties to the Imperial House of Habsburg, especially to the heir to the throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who appointed him court photographer in 1908, but also to the eminent personalities of the art and culture scene around 1900 – especially to the members of the Vienna Secession whose exhibitions he documented. Nähr enjoyed a life-long friendship with the Jugendstil artist Gustav Klimt and with Ludwig Wittgenstein, which were characterized by a reciprocal and fruitful artistic exchange.