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S10

‘From February 2012 to December 2015 I used my analogue large-format camera to keep a photographic diary of the construction work on the S10 dual carriageway.

Since I live at the northern end of the S10, it seemed only natural that I should take a closer look at the whole project.

I used the plate camera because this type of landscape photography requires a measure of slowness and precision.
My photographs are designed to preserve a certain distance from the construction site.

What’s important to me is the outsider’s scrutinising gaze. What sort of impact is the project having on the landscape, the villages, the settlements, the town (Freistadt), and the people?’

February 2012
I drive past a house, this very photograph.
Soon it will give way to a dual carriageway.
The S10.
20 km long.
Scheduled for completion in 2015.
700 million.
I set off with my large-format analogue camera.
Try to keep your distance,
don’t get too close, I tell myself.
I set off time and again, and observe.
Curious, fascinated, and a little speechless too.
I want to explore it all on foot.
Earthworks and chance encounters.
It’s a slow process.
You stand there and watch.
And then, all of a sudden, you’re driving.
Kurt Hörbst, April 2016

Kurt Hörbst
FOTOHOFedition
S10
Texts by: Bodo Hell, Kurt Hörbst,
Adalbert Stifter
Graphic design: Andrea Zeitlhuber
2016, Schweizer Broschur
24 x 32 cm, 176 pages
85 color plates
edition: German: 1000 / English: 300
ISBN (ger.): 978-3-902993-27-4
ISBN (engl.):978-3-902993-29-8