The Photographic Society (PhG) is the oldest association of photographers in Austria. It was founded in Vienna on March 22, 1861.
Lois Lammerhuber was born in 1952 in St. Peter in der Au. After an 8-year career as a programmer in the emerging digital world, he fulfills a childhood dream and travels for two years, from 1978 – 1980, the Panamericana from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. To document this journey, he turns to photography for the first time. In 1984, he begins his close collaboration with GEO magazine, which continues to this day and massively shapes his view of photography.
Over the years, Lammerhuber became one of GEO’s busiest photographers. In addition, Lammerhuber was editorially and photographically responsible for the Austria section of GEO magazine from October 1994 to March 2020.
From 2007 to 2012, Lammerhuber cooperated with the largest museum in the world, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, and produced regular books on its collections.
Since 2007, Lammerhuber has been working on an encyclopedia about theater using the “case study of the Vienna State Opera” – according to Dominique Meyer, director of the Haus am Ring from 2010 to 2020. The series was completed in 2020 with the title “Gesamtkunstwerk”.
The cooperation with the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, for which Lammerhuber defined the photographic visual language, and which was built by I.M. Pei and opened in November 2008, continues to this day.
Lammerhuber has also written texts for magazines and radio, for example for OE 1 “Neue Literatur aus Österreich” (New Literature from Austria) or for the program “Unterwegs” (On the Road) on BR 2.
In 2009, together with his wife Silvia Lammerhuber, Lammerhuber founded the publishing house Edition Lammerhuber, which has since been awarded 247 prizes and was named best photo book publisher in Europe by the FEP – Federation of European Professional Photographers in 2013, 2015 and 2017.
Lammerhuber has been a member of the Art Directors Club New York since 1994. In 2014, he was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art I. Class. In 2017, he was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honor for Services to the Province of Lower Austria as well as the Golden Decoration of Honor for Services to the Province of Vienna.
Lois Lammerhuber has photographed 71 books to date and has also created the graphic design for 200 books. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions worldwide. In addition, he has curated a large number of exhibitions. The most extensive work is that on the Future Circular Collider for CERN in Geneva. The open-air exhibition, entitled “Code of the Universe,” will be on view in 208 cities across Europe.
The Lammerhuber Photography Award is presented every two years as part of the Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism in Hanover. The award is given to the reportage that tells an everyday story in the most impressive way.
Since 2013, Lois and Silvia Lammerhuber have been organizing the Global Peace Photo Award, which together with UNESCO, the Austrian Parliament, the Association of Parliamentary Editors, the International Press Institute (IPI), the German Youth Photo Award, the World Press Photo Foundation, POY LATAM and the Photographic Society (PhG) is looking for the Peace Photo of the Year, which is selected from approximately 20,000 submissions from up to 160 countries. The Peace Picture of the Year Award will be presented on September 21, the UN World Peace Day, at the Austrian Parliament by the respective President of the Parliament and the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate of the Year.
Since 2018, Lois Lammerhuber has been responsible for Europe’s largest open-air photo festival, the Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo, in cooperation with the festival in La Gacilly, which is visited by around 300,000 photo enthusiasts every year.
