Christine Turnauer – Biography

Christine Turnauer was educated in Austria and in England. In 1971, she moved to Paris and apprenticed to various photographers. From 1974 to 1976, Christine was the assistant to Frank Horvat, and then until 1979 she worked as a freelance photographer in Paris.

In 1979, she emigrated to Alberta, in Western Canada, where she pursued various photographic projects, the most important one being the portraits of North-American Native Indian traditional dancers. For this, Christine built a portable daylight studio, in the form of a tent, and traveled for two years from North Alberta to South Montana to attend the different “pow wows” (Native Indian gatherings). In 1992, a publication of her work with the title Portraits was published in Canada.

In 2000, Christine moved back to Europe and, from there, traveled to Japan, Ethiopia, Jerusalem, India, Greece, Turkey, and Mongolia to pursue her photographic work. In 2014, her series of black-and-white portraits from these travels and encounters was published under the title Presence by Hatje Cantz and notably exhibited in major solo exhibitions in Vienna (Forum am Schillerplatz, 2014) and Arles (Chapelle Sainte-Anne, City of Arles and KLV Art Projects, 2018).

In June 2014, she was commissioned to take portraits of the Gypsies in Romania. It was the beginning of her new photographic project on the dignity of the Gypsies, which took her to India where the roots begin, and then through Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Kosovo. The book The Dignity of the Gypsies was published by Hatje Cantz in September 2017.