Perspectives, Perceptions – A South Tyrolean Monk Photographs the 2 - conference

The Claudia Augusta Library invites you to the conference “Perspectives, Perceptions – A South Tyrolean Monk Photographs the 20th Century”, presented by Hannes Obermair, historian and researcher at Eurac Research in Bolzano. The talk is based on the German-language book Blicke von aussen – Blicke von innen. Pater Ambros Trafojer (1891–1974) fotografiert im und um das Kloster Muri-Gries in Bozen by Hannes Obermair. P. Ambros Trafojer was born in Gries in 1891 and joined the Benedictine monastery of Muri-Gries in 1911. Ordained in 1916, he taught theology and served in various pastoral roles. Initially a diarist, he described the end of WWI as a catastrophe. By the mid-1920s, photography became his main form of communication and memory. Until his death in 1974, he produced around 20,000 photographs: portraits, landscapes, buildings, animals, and everyday life. He even secretly photographed the end of WWII. This invaluable visual heritage was brought to light again by a 2024 publication from the renowned Chronos Verlag in Zurich. A Swiss foundation is now digitizing the full archive for public access during Muri's millennium celebrations (1027–2027).