«Lois Hechenblaikner, born in 1958 in Alpbachtal in Tyrol, where he grew up, worked for two decades as a travel photographer in Asia. In the mid-1990’s, he returned home to photograph the changing landscape and people, marked by the increasing boom of (winter) tourism, for documentary and artistic purposes – tirelessly, unmistakably, mercilessly.

With his photographic work, Lois Hechenblaikner gets to the heart of the change in alpine society and landscapes. With his photo pairs, in which Hechenblaikner contrasts the old black and white photos of the agricultural engineer Armin Kniely, taken between 1940 and 1970, with his own colour photos from today, he shows with a seemingly simple method how the mountain world has changed. Formal similarities and overlapping motives create a depth of focus that sheds light on Tyrol’s transformation, deep into the farthest corner of the region. And not just there: Hechenblaikner’s books «Hinter den Bergen» and «Winter Wonderland» (2012) are universally applicable.»

Albert Mountain Award 2012