Josef Maria Eder (1855-1944)

The research project focuses on one of the most influential figures in the history of Austrian and international photography. To this day, Josef Maria Eder (1855-1944) is undisputed as a pioneer of both photochemical and photohistorical research. However, the frequency with which this author is quoted in the contemporary discourse on media-based, specifically visual, representation of the knowledge and communicative order of a (post)modern (global) society - on the one hand as a schematic figure of a supposedly naive, "technicist" and "positivist" enthusiasm for progress, on the other as a seemingly completely neutral reference regarding the development of scientific and mass-media use of photographic methods - appears extremely contradictory. There is, it would seem, an ongoing reception but hardly any exact knowledge of the full scope and special aspects of Eder`s activities. The aim of our research project is therefore an in-depth, critical analysis of his exemplary efforts regarding the intellectual and creative importance, the epistemic, historical and also educational policy relevance of photography as a prototype of technical images within modern visual culture. Eder`s biography, his family background, his friendships, his impressive international network of colleagues from a wide range of disciplines, and last but not least his personal political views will constitute one of the three main topics of the study. The second research complex concerns the methodical structure and text of his monumental "Handbook of Photography" and his "History of Photography" included therein. The subject of the third chapter is the programme and success of the "K.k. Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt für Photographie und Reproductionsverfahren/Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt" co-founded by Eder in 1888 and run by him until 1923, an institution that was also instrumental in making Vienna one of the leading centres of scientific photography and other modern imaging technologies, e.g. film, in the late nineteenth century, and in which we can observe the very first beginnings of a systematic synopsis of what many courses of study and discussion platforms for media art, media science, media technology or, generally, "new media" today embody.

Josef Maria Eder counts among the most influential figures in the history of Austrian and international photography at the end of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century. In contrast to this, however, his influence thereafter appears strangely one- dimensional, driven above all by a stereotyped antagonism between a more technical, commercial and a more artistically ennobled understanding of the medium. Thus, while there was an ongoing reception, there was in effect no precise knowledge of the whole extent and particular nature of Eders understanding of photography. The aim of our research project was to amend this development on as broad a basis as possible. By investigating Eders historical position as a photochemist, as a practitioner and patron of scientific photography in the broader sense, as a pioneer of a source-critical historiography of photography, and not least as an exponent of modern photography training, the aim was to arrive at a more differentiated characterisation than was previously the case. As opposed to the domain of high art, photography has an almost habitual image of being a picture-making medium that creates a spontaneous impression and is generally understandable without the need for any precisely defined knowledge or skill. Josef Maria Eder was well aware of this aspect of an art moyen (the title of Pierre Bourdieus 1965 study on The social uses of photography contains some tricky interpretations both in the German translation Eine illegitime Kunst, An Illegitimate Art, and in the Anglo-American version A Middle-brow Art). His concern about the further qualification of photographers (with a stance towards admitting girls and women to his institution that was remarkably positive for his time) may be indicative of the status problems facing the medium from the outset. But for him, the solution to these problems may not have been that pressing, as evidenced, for example, by the acerbic dispute with exponents of a guild-style organisation who demanded categorical qualifications (master craftsmans diplomas) as a requirement for carrying on the profession. More important to him was the innovative potential offered by this emergent technology.