Introduction

At first glance Peter Granser's photographs show Austria as advertised in tourist offices: green alps, blue skies, snowy mountain peaks and red-cheeked Austrians in traditional dress. But on closer inspection there is always a detail that disturbs this postcard-idyll: Cows parked between cars, Umbrellas inscribed with the word 'Eskimo' blowing the alp wind , Crucifixes hung among antlers. Granser shows the bizarre clashes between the everyday and the fictions of tourism. His 'Austria' is not Austria as we know it, but an entirely strange and foreign country.

JVM (c) DIE ZEIT 19.08.2004 Nr.35