Ferdinand Schmuter lived from 1870 to 1928. Originally a famous Viennese etcher and engraver, his photography work was only recently discovered under a Viennese rooftop in 2001. It had never been published. A first exhibition was held at the WestLicht/Leica gallery in Vienna in October 2001. By the end of 2003, all the negatives and photographs had been bought by the Austrian National Library (ONB) in Vienna. In 2004, this issue of the Taiwanese photo magazine Photographers International was published. It offers for the first time the most extensive selection of Schmutzer’s photographs.

The selection of approximately 80 images includes portraits of Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Richard Strauss, Arthur Schnitzler, Pablo Casals, Felix Salten as well as the last two great potentates of Europe, Kaiser Karl I and Kaiser Wilhelm II.

An entirely new artistic side of Ferdinand Schmutzer is revealed upon viewing his landscape photographs from Holland, France, Hungary and Italy. It is evident that he made them without being encumbered by constraints that usually come with assignments.  

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Harmony and stillness appear to have been additional characteristics of Ferdinand Schmutzer, who was not only a sensitive etcher, but also a highly talented photographer.

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