"Ping Pong"

gelatin silver print, glossy

titled, dated, signed (pencil), and inscribed "Beispiele aus meinen beruflichen Arbeiten" (Examples from my professional work) verso

For her final exam as a photographer, Heidi Harsieber photographed a ping-pong ball against a black background. She enlarged the negative in the darkroom onto a special thick, high-gloss photo paper that did not develop any dull spots when drying in the press – a result that was by no means guaranteed, as this particular photo paper was not available on the market for long. In 1971, water damage in the storage room destroyed all negatives from the period between 1963 and 1965 and 1968/69.
For her application to head the Central Photography Workshop at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna in 1977, Harsieber wrote on the back of the photo, “Beispiele aus meinen beruflichen Arbeiten” (Examples from my professional work) – she was awarded the professorship.
(Christoph Fuchs, based on Heidi Harsieber, March 24, 2026, translated by deepL)