PLACED

ROBERT NIEDEREGGER

// Based in Innsbruck, Austria, Robert has been interested in photography since his youth. Until his professional reorientation in 2021, he mainly dedicated himself to landscape photography as a hobby. His photo art project, the series “Placed”, won him the title of “European Photographer” from the FEP.

In September 2021, Robert began a two year photography programme at the Prague Photography School in Linz, Austria (Prager Fotoschule für angewandte und künstlerische Fotografie), which he completed in March 2024, and which awakened his interest in the artistic aspects of photography.

Working with a well-established photographer as an assistant he earned the title of European Photographer from the FEP (Federation European Photographer) in November 2022 with the series “Placed“, some of which we present here. Now a professional photographer in Innsbruck, he has the opportunity to intensively explore all areas of applied and artistic photography.

SUCCESS IS SOMETIMES THE RESULT OF A SERIES OF FAILED ATTEMPTS.
Vincent Van Gogh

What draws you to the arts?

“Art is a space for me that I entered relatively late. This space is almost infinitely large, fascinates me, makes me curious, inspires me, and gives me hope. I hope I will open many more doors.”

What do you like best about the project you have shared with us?

“I have received positive feedback for my work from many people. Perhaps it is sometimes the seemingly simple that attracts us. In addition, I am happy that this series is almost endlessly expandable. With this response, my motivation to continue this project grows.”

When Robert describes art as a vast and unexplored territory that has the ability to inspire, intrigue, and give hope, we cannot help but agree. The recognition as “European Photographer” by the Federation of European Photographers is a remarkable achievement, a testament to the depth and artistry that emerged from Robert’s creative evolution.

“For the series ‘Placed’, I was looking for objects of different shapes and colours that would create a cohesive overall impression within the series. Using a stencil, I positioned these objects with the same aspect ratio,” Robert explains. “As a result, the different sizes of the objects remained proportionally the same and were visually pleasing to the viewer.”

In the original series of 12 (of which we are showing 10 here), Robert kept the background in four different colours for three motifs each. This provides an exciting break and loosens up the series a little.

“I had a lot of ideas and tried a lot of things in my search for suitable objects. In the process of selecting the objects, draping them correctly and arranging them as aesthetically as possible, I realised that it is often only nuances that strongly influence the overall image. This challenge was the driving force behind my intense involvement in this project.”

Robert used a Hasselblad H5D. Because of this camera’s multishot process (the image is exposed six times, with a one-pixel shift after each exposure), the original file has a very high data rate. This makes it possible to create both very large prints and incredibly detailed views on digital media. In fact, the photos look best in their high-resolution form on very large prints, but even the compressed versions you can see here are very beautiful.

Click on the photos to see a larger image in original dimensions.