The series ’decisive gesture’ negotiates the analog photographic image as an impression and imprint at the same time. The correlation between image and image carrier is explored – drawing and photography are combined, mechanical reproduction and the artist’s personal gesture are mixing. The process of ‘tactile photography’ is the manifestation of an embodied perception defined by the ‘muscular memory’ on the image carrier. This deliberate yet unpredictable process of image production reveals the in-communication of human experience in its banality.
The works create a psychological space between lived experience, perception and photographic representation. Based on social and geopolitical aspects of human interactions with their environment, the artist develops site-specific relationships through the tactile possibilities of the analog medium. The photographs negotiate the gap between image and perception.

Thomas Steineder, (*1985, Sankt Pölten, AT) is a freelance artist and photographer living in Vienna and Lower Austria. He studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and completed his studies in 2019 with the photographic installation ‘Algorithmic Walking’. The book version of this project was published by FOTOHOF>EDITION in 2022 and received the bronze medal in the category ‘artistic book’ at the ‘german photo book award’.
Thomas Steineder has recently taught at HDK-Valand, Sweden (2024) and TU Munich, Germany (2024), completed a residency at the Nida Art Colony, Lithuania (2023) and received the Photography Start-up grant from the Federal Chancellery of Austria (2021). Among others, his works can be found in the collection of the City of Vienna (2020), the Province of Lower Austria (2022) and the Austrian Federal Collection (2024).

steineder.org