Klaus Pichler, winner of Happiness on the move

pichler_k-02The winner of the International award HAPPINESS ON THE MOVE is Klaus Pichler, a photographer living in Vienna, with “Golden Days Before They End” .

The international photography award is organized by the Cortona Photo Festival. I was part of the 2016 edition jury, among international photography experts like Daphne Angles, photo editor at The New York Times in Paris, Fiona Rogers, Global Business Development Manager at Magnum in London, James Wellford, chief of visual documentary project Screen in New York.

About the winning work. They still exist. These little inns, bars or dens in Vienna, Austria, where time seems to have stopped. If you pass by, you hear loud laughter through the half open door – and only very few walk in. Too often, these places appear in the media with reports of a fight or a stabbing between friends over a misunderstanding during one of their drinking sessions. For many customers, these are the only places they find somebody to talk to. Most of the time, the whole bar takes part in one conversation. These are substitute families with their own daily rituals. Once you’ve joined the family, you stick together and you drink together – all day, every day.