The traditional Salzburg Festival began on Saturday, 18 July, with the grand opening gala. This will be followed by 188 performances at 12 venues over the next 44 days. As a sponsor of this world famous festival, Leica Camera AG will be represented by an exhibition of photography in the foyer of the Grand festival Theatre throughout the entire course of the festival.

The exhibition, titled ‘The ones in the dark are invisible’, invites viewers to take a look behind the scenes of the Salzburg Festival. Over a period of three weeks, photographers Alberto Venzago from Switzerland and Lisa Kutzelnig from Salzburg accompanied the production processes in the workshops of the ‘Wardrobe and Make-up’ department with their Leica cameras. With their pictures, the two photographers provide fascinating and unusual insights into the complex and elaborate production processes that normally remain hidden from the public eye.

The tasks of the ‘Wardrobe and Make-up’ department are not limited to costumes and make-up. The department has its own dyeing workshop and laundry, tailors, seamstresses and shoemakers and an office for calculating the amounts of material to be purchased. At the heart of it all is the ‘Manufaktur’, where tailors and seamstresses make the costumes the artists will later wear on the stage. Numerous creative minds and skilful hands work together on bespoke costumes and frequently handmade shoes that then wait for the next stage production.

The Swiss photographer Alberto Venzago began his career at the young age of 26 and his work was soon crowned with success. He shot reportage for prominent magazines like Life, The Sunday Times, Stern and Geo. His work and engagement have been honoured with many prizes, among them, the Robert Capa Award. Today, Venzago is the official photographer of the London Symphony Orchestra. ‘An authentic image is more important than a beautiful image’, is how he sums up his philosophy. Venzago has also been making films for the last twenty years and has won numerous awards for his work. For instance, his anti-racism campaign for the Swiss Confederation won gold at the New York Film Festival. He is also a three-time winner of the EDI (2004, 2007 and 2009), the most prestigious Swiss prize for advertising, industrial and corporate films.

Lisa Kutzelnig, the young photographer from Salzburg, studied art history and has worked at the Leica Galerie in Salzburg since 2010, where she discovered her love for photography. She took up photography in 2012 and is currently working on exhibition projects of her own. So far, her photography has been shown in the Salzburg Museum, the Stadtwerk Lehen, in the Leica Galerie as a contributor to the group exhibition ‘Salzburg in Focus’ and in the course of the Instant 36 film festival.

The exhibition, ‘The ones in the dark are invisible’, opens with a vernissage at 11 a.m. on 18 July and ends on the last day of the Salzburg Festival on 30 August 2015. The opening times are always one hour before performances at the theatre begin. The documentary project will continue until the end of 2017.

On the photo (top): Alberto Venzago, Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Wilfried Haslauer, Helga Rabl-Stadler, Lisa Kutzelnig
Photo by Richard Schabetsberger

More info: http://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/