Books: „Wildes Waldviertel“…

Not far from our homes there are hidden places that are unexpectedly wild and unspoiled. These places were obviously overlooked. They have been difficult to access for exploitation. Or less interesting from an economic point of view because of poor resource provision. So they somehow „avoided“ caterpillars and chainsaws. Til today.
These places still hold the memory of the ancient wilderness. Our former homeland, when nature was something normal, our habitat – and not just a background for holiday destinations … Here, the wild soul of the original landscape still has a residence.
I explored and photographed such places in my childhood region of Waldviertel in northern Austria. This is an extraordinary lovely and diverse cultural landscape – with numerous surprising remnant „nests“ of ancient and free nature. My photographic expeditions were the basis for a photography book – „Wildes Waldviertel“, published by Brandstätter Verlag (in German).
You can order the book: HERE.

Unser Urwald. Die letzten wilden Wälder im Herzen Europas.

5000 years ago central Europe was covered by large forests, dominated by European Beech. 50 meters high tree giants, large amounts of dead wood and a great biodiversity – these virgin woodlands were looking similar to the forests shown in fantasy movies today.

But they are almost gone. Almost. There are some few virgin forest areas still left in the Heart of Europe.

Between 2013 and 2015 I have visited and documented 77 of those wild places in the Alps, in the Carpathians, in the Dinaric Arc, in the Apennins and the hills and lowlands of the north, in Germany, Czech Republic, Poland or southern Sweden.

Many of them are truly unseen and hidden places, which have been rarely documented in photography.

I collected photo portraits of Europe’s last wild woodlands in my book „Unser Urwald. Die letzten wilden Wälder im Herzen Europas“ , which was released in 2015 (German language only; sold out since 2022).

Europe’s last wild woodlands are not save yet: In some CEE regions such as Romania legal and illegal logging of high biodiversity value forests, bad management, over use and corruption are threatening parts of the last big primary and old growth forests within the EU. Only a part of them is protected in National Parks or UNESCO reserves.

With my book I also wanted to increase the public value of our remaining paradise forests and highlight the need to improve their protection.

Previews of my book in a slideshow: Virgin Forest

Unfortunately, the book is sold out and only available second hand … 

 

The book „Schwarzbuch Alpen“ portrayed the beautiful but ravaged mountain range between Nice and Vienna – the Alps.
These mountaind are most important wilderess refuge area in the middle of Europe. However,
at the same time, the Alps are the most intensely developed mountain terrain on our planet. Hardly any other mountain range in the world is more densely populated and is used more intensively economically. But the climate crisis and the progressing development of alpine natural landscapes are pushing these mountains to their limits... (German language).

Unfortunately, the book is sold out and not available any more…