§ 06 Contact

Get in touch

For project inquiries, collaborations and site-specific concepts, feel free to reach out.

Or write directly: photoart.essl@gmail.com

Every space has a story. Let's shape yours.

Barbara Essl is an Austrian fine art photographer working with photography, material, and spatial concepts.

Her work explores memory, transformation, and the emotional layers of architecture — often in spaces that have been abandoned, forgotten, or in transition. She collaborates with hotels, developers, and architects to create site-specific visual concepts.

Her practice focuses on abandoned and transitional spaces across Europe — industrial sites, harbours, theatres, and forgotten buildings — which she translates into atmospheric visual narratives. Moving between documentation and interpretation, her work reveals the emotional and historical layers embedded within architecture.

Essl develops site-responsive photographic concepts for spatial contexts, particularly in hospitality and architectural environments. Her works are not conceived as decoration, but as visual elements that interact with space — enhancing identity, atmosphere, and perception.

Working with both analogue techniques and digital tools, she extends photography into material experimentation, including layering, transfers, pigments, and wax. Her large-scale works emphasise surface and structure, creating a tactile presence that resonates with architectural settings.

She studied photography at Spéos International Photography School in Paris, where she refined her visual language as a student of Paolo Roversi.

Before dedicating herself fully to her artistic practice, Essl worked as a journalist and television producer for ORF, ZDF, and Servus TV. For the TV format literaTOUR, she was awarded the Austrian Television Award (43rd Television Prize, 2010). This background continues to inform her approach, combining visual sensitivity with narrative clarity.

Her works are held in private and institutional collections. She lives and works between Austria and Italy.

Exhibitions & press

Selected · full CV on request

21 Oct 2025 — 30 Apr 2026

Räume des Erinnerns – Räume der Zukunft

Wohninvest · Vienna

On view
18 — 21 Sept 2025

Vienna Highlights Art Fair

Austrian National Library · Vienna

2025
8 — 22 Sept 2025

Silent Trieste — Timeless Spaces

Le Vie delle Foto · Trieste

2025
8 — 12 May 2025

Art Austria

MuseumsQuartier Wien · Vienna

2025
3 May 2025

Filanda Banfi

Filanda Banfi · Dignano (UD)

2025
21 Feb 2025 — 9 Mar 2025

Barbara Essl — Lost Places

Fondazione Friuli · Udine

2025
29 Nov 2024 — 20 Dec 2024

Members Exhibition

Kunstverein Klagenfurt · Klagenfurt

2024
31 May 2024 — 31 Aug 2024

Le Petit Monde

Kollerwirt · Tanzenberg / Kärnten

2024
12 — 24 Apr 2024

Welcome

Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello · Venice

2024
1 Mar 2024 — 31 Jul 2024

Lost Places in and around Fiume / Rijeka

Conservation Department · Rijeka

2024
16 Jan 2024 — 3 Feb 2024

Il microcosmo di Barbara Essl

DoubleTree by Hilton · Trieste

2024
1 Nov 2023 — 15 Feb 2024

Lost Places

Palazzo Modello · Rijeka / Fiume

2023
1 Mar 2023 — 31 Jul 2023

Solo Exhibition — Magazzino 26

Magazzino 26 · Trieste

2023