Imprinted Pasts

Austria: Vienna

Imbuing every aspect of modern life with glamor, the past haunts Vienna. By night or day, change has occurred. Plastic meets intricate metalwork at street level, electricity lights walkways at night, and shoes—casually tossed—dangle overhead in the trees. The specter of a history exists visually among the taste of new immigrant foods or the honking of modern traffic. Through the play of light, the city—which exists, like all art, continuously from conception to today—is illuminated.

Ornate gilding from the past casts shadows on the streets traversed today by the city's 1.8 million inhabitants.

Tram lines disrupt every vista, emphasizing modern needs that co-exist with the city's preserved aesthetic.

Shoes worn by a man today show signs of aging from normal shuffle on the street, but this pair also braves the elements, hanging from a tree in front of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Vintage exists in the public imagination and its glamour exists displayed alongside modern luxuries. Shop: Flo Vintage!

Cars pass by Café Museum, opened 1899, a Viennese coffee shop frequented by artists like Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka—the art icons of the city.

Everyday people pass icons of the past on their daily routes.

And today, new icons are raised to watch over the city.

The Naschmarkt has existed in Vienna since the 18th century, but today's modern iteration has fluorescent lights illuminating paved roads, graffiti, and food from immigrant cultures, like Balkan, Chinese, and Indian cuisine.