The Leica Galerie Salzburg is currently presenting works by the German photographer Henrike Stahl, who lives and works in France. In her photographic practice, Stahl combines documentary observation with experimental interventions, developing a hybrid visual language that expands reality without manipulating it.
Themes such as home, identity and social belonging lie at the heart of her work. Stahl understands plurality as a form of richness and approaches her images with openness: she crumples, cuts and reworks her prints, embraces chance and opens her photographs to poetic interventions.
The works on display were created during a residency at the French winery Château Palmer in 2023. In the series “L’arc sera parmi les nuages”, Stahl focuses on the everyday life of the winemakers as well as on young people from the surrounding suburbs who work at the estate and discover new perspectives there.
“I quickly realized that the transmission of knowledge is part of a broader philosophy,” says Stahl. “At Palmer they are not only producing wine – they are also giving young people the opportunity to grow and develop. The young people here are like buds. My task is to photograph them as they bloom.”
During her several-month stay, Stahl accompanied the work in the vineyard with great sensitivity. She observed processes of learning and exchange, experimented with her materials and even exposed her photographs to the influences of viticulture – prints were folded, altered or placed in the soil, allowing new visual traces to emerge.
At the same time, this nature-oriented approach reveals the fragility of the landscape. Issues such as drought and the rising sea level – the winery lies close to the Atlantic coast – remain ever-present.
Yet Stahl consciously chooses a positive perspective: exchange, the sharing of knowledge and collective learning are central to her work. Inspired by the biodynamic practices of winemaking, she transfers this philosophy into her artistic process – allowing nature to intervene, transform and co-create.
Alongside works from the series, the exhibition also features impressions from an artist talk between Henrike Stahl and Karin Rehn-Kaufmann.
Leica Galerie Salzburg
Gaisbergstraße 12
5020 Salzburg, Austria
30.01.2026 – 21.03.2026