"Gürtel"

Vienna

gelatin silver print, selenium toned

signed, dated, titled and numbered (pencil) on verso

Fritz Simak had to be admitted to the General Hospital (AKH) in Vienna for long periods of time on several occasions. The hospital, one of the largest in Europe, is located on the Gürtel, a major thoroughfare in the Austrian capital. The old city railway, now the U6 line of the Vienna subway, also runs down the middle of the multi-lane road. The avenue of plane trees along the Gürtel is not only illuminated by street lights, but also takes on a special glow from the passing subway trains – if, as here, you expose for several minutes.
As early as the 1930s, German photojournalist Alex Stöcker produced an interesting and very modern-looking night study in Berlin. Here, too, the lights of passing trams draw ghostly bright streaks.
(Christoph Fuchs, translated by deepL)