Introduction

Due to the current pandemic, Austria is still in a state of partial lock down, but as restrictions are lifted step-by-step, interesting opportunities for photo projects arise.

One place I recommend visiting is the Wiener Prater, the famous Viennese amusement park. Let’s take a look at the map to show you where it is located.

To get there, take the U1 or U2 underground to station “Praterstern”, which is marked on the map. From there, it is only a couple of meters to walk.

The Wiener Prater is always a nice place to visit, but when the rides are closed - which is early in the morning or during a pandemic - one can take images of the interesting scenery devoid of any humans.

That said, I came up with three concepts I’d like to share. But before we get to the images, let me show you what I brought for the photo walk.

Backside of the U-Bahn station “Praterstern” as seen from the Wiener Prater.

Equipment

The Olympus OM-D E-M10III is perfect for urban exploration and two spare batteries provide enough power for a day. Along with this camera, I brought my two favourite street photography lenses for the Olympus System, the Zuiko 17mm f/1.8 and the Zuiko 45mm f/1.8. These lenses have equivalent focal lengths of 35mm and 90mm. They offer good image quality in a very light package.

Gear aside - let’s check out the images!

Concept I - Silhouettes

For the first series, I decided to capture the skeletal frames of the various rides against the bright morning sky. A significant increase of contrast in post processing gave me this very dramatic look, which is suitable for social media. The images underline the current situation of complete standstill.

Concept II - Lockdown

The second set of images comprises photos of closed-down rides and places which are usually crowded with people. There are quite some visual differences between these images and the images of the first series. No harsh contrasts and more visible surface details put them more in line with classic reportage-style photography. They are meant to tell a story, and I would definitely publish them with little blurbs accompanying them.

Concept III - Figures

The life-sized figures of typical Viennese stereotypes from past and present at the Wiener Prater make up for a very interesting photo subject as well. I decided to photograph them like I would real humans when doing street photography. In the images, the motionless figures serve as references to the current pandemic, one of them is even wearing mouth-nose protection. These images would have worked in colour as well, but I’m just not really in the mood for colour shots at the moment, so monochrome it is!

Final Thoughts

Those three concepts are meant as starting points and will remain in my drawer of creative ideas. Not every picture series has to grow into a full-fledged poto project. Nonetheless, in general I recommend recording already developed concepts and ideas so you can get back to them later.

Inspiration - Wiener Prater