Schwarzweiße Bilder, geschnitzte Romane
Robert Seethaler, the bestselling Austrian author known for novels like "Der Trafikant" and "Die Straße," has taken up photography. In an exclusive interview with Monopol, he presents his first black-and-white images, capturing winter scenes in Berlin—churches, shadows, and portraits of solitary, often elderly or homeless people. Seethaler, who has severe visual impairment (19 diopters per eye), explains his preference for monochrome as a way to strip away distraction and reveal essence, comparing the process to his father's wood carving and his own meticulous writing.
This matters because it reveals a new creative dimension of a major literary figure, whose quiet, introspective style translates directly into his visual work. The photographs are not illustrations of his novel "Die Straße" but rather the novel is, in his words, "the book to the pictures." This cross-disciplinary practice highlights how artists can shift between media while maintaining a consistent thematic and aesthetic vision, and it offers readers and art audiences a deeper understanding of Seethaler's artistic process.