Through my photographic work for the art collection of the Austrian Alpine Club, I am constantly confronted with the image of mountains and the artist’s view on them. There are numerous historical mountain reliefs in the Alpine Club‘s depot. This is the starting point for this series of images. Publicly accessible satellite image data was converted and then printed in 3D. I photograph the resulting mountain models in the studio and transform them back into digital image data.
The title of the work refers to one of the most popular high alpine mountaineering destinations. The highest peaks of the seven continents. This endeavour is so popular because it combines two forms of adventure and longing. Although there are only seven continents, nine mountains are to be climbed. This is based on a dispute in the mountaineering scene about the highest mountains for each continent. The continental boundaries of Europe and Australia are disputed. Depending on the opinion, the highest peak in Europe is either Mont Blanc in the Western Alps or Elbrus in the Caucasus. The same problem exists in Australia, where Mount Kosciuszko is regarded as the highest peak in the Australian mainland and Puncak Jaya on New Guinea as the highest mountain in Oceania.

David Steinbacher (*1966, Kufstein, AT) lives and works in Wörgl, Tyrol. After training as a professional photographer (partly completed in Vienna), he was a member of the board of the ‘KünstlerInnen Vereinigung Tirol’ between 2006 and 2014. In 2003 and 2004, Steinbacher received the award ‘Kulturpreis der Stadt Wörgl’ as well as the ‘Förderpreis des Salzburger Kunstvereins’. In addition to solo and group exhibitions, the book ‘Plenarsäle’ was published in 2012 and ‘meerblau’ in 2021. Art was also purchased by the state of Tyrol (2003, 2004, 2015 and 2020), the city of Innsbruck and in 2022 for the federal photo collection.

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