Nicola Hackl-Haslinger
Nicola Hackl-Haslinger is an Austrian artist. Her passion for photography started at a quite early age. She was about five years, when she was given her first Agfamatic camera. It was during her schooldays at the HBLA für Künstlerische Gestaltung when she started taking photos with a reflex camera and developing them in the darkroom. After her high school diploma she received training as a designer of jewellery, and in 1999 she was awarded the Künstlerpunze (artist`s hallmark). Alongside her work as a self-employed designer she started further training at the Prager Fotoschule Österreich. In 2011 she graduated with honours. She lives and works in Gramastetten, Austria.
Nicola Hackl-Haslinger´s photographs are represented nationally and internationally. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Nordico Museum Linz, Museum Angerlehner Thalheim, Gallery of Modern Art Klosterneuburg, Art Collection of Upper Austria and the Anton Bruckner Private University Linz.
Nicola Hackl-Haslinger was nominated for the Peace Award St. Leopold in 2016 and 2018. She worked in collaboration with composer and pianist Volker Bertelmann aka Hauschka in 2017 and 2019, who has also been nominated for the Oscar and the Golden Globe Award.
Artist’s Statement
„I am trying to get to the bottom of things, not only technically, but also in a psychological and symbolic sense. I take an observer’s position and I try to document latent moods and secret moments in low-key colours and formal exactness. Moreover, I am striving to create an atmosphere of vagueness, somehow linking what is inside with the exterior, a process of unveiling and bringing something to light! A recurring motif is the presentation of innermost states, both with regard to the intellect but also to emotions. The photographs challenge the beholder to look closer and ,work out the different layers, each one telling their own stories.
I try to invite the beholder to stand still and linger over what he sees and maybe, apart from the space that is provided for individual interpretation, also find a moment of peace and harmony in this fast-paced time!
This is maybe also the reason why my favorite piece of equipment is my wonderful copper printing press dating from 1900! For me one of the most memorable experiences in my photographic work was the moment in 2017 when after a period that was marked by experiments, innumerable setbacks and misprints and which lasted more than two years – I succeeded in printing the first perfect photogravures on gold! At last I was able to combine both my passions – photography and gold smithery!“
