MICHELDORF MICHELDORF MICHELDORF MICHELDORF
While seeking to explore the country in which he grew up, a chance journey led Elias Holzknecht to Micheldorf in Upper Austria. There, he discovered beauty in the everyday: a small community of nearly 6,000 inhabitants who sleep, eat, walk, and work—people for whom Micheldorf is the center of their lives.
As he immersed himself in village life, Holzknecht became increasingly aware that no single mode of representation can fully capture the complexity of a social space. Micheldorf resisted being condensed into a singular narrative—its very name pointed to multiplicity, given that three other villages in Austria share the same name. The story therefore unfolds not in one location, but across all four Micheldorfs.
The resulting photographic work critically examines how visual narratives construct a sense of place and identity. Micheldorf Micheldorf Micheldorf Micheldorf appears at first glance to follow a linear storyline, a typological study of an Austrian village—an impression reinforced by the minimalistic design. Yet multiple versions of the book exist, a conceptual element already hinted at in the title.
Each edition contains the same images and text fragments, but arranged in a different order. This shifting structure highlights the underlying complexity of a narrative that initially seems straightforward.
By foregrounding the instability of sequence and the constructed nature of photographic storytelling, the project reflects on how images shape our understanding of a place and its inhabitants. It invites viewers not only to look closely at what is shown, but to think beyond Micheldorf itself.
There are three versions of the book. Each includes the same visual and textual material, but in entirely different sequences. The editions are distributed randomly and marked as 1/4, 2/4, and 3/4—suggesting the existence of a fourth version that never materializes.
EXHIBITIONS
2021 – Graduation Show, BA Photography, KASK, Ghent, BE
2023 – Goethe Exil, group show, Hannover, DE
2024 – Les Rencontres de la Photographie, group show, Arles, FR
2025 – Sensen Museum Micheldorf, solo, Micheldorf in OÖ, AUT
AWARDS
2023 – Nomination, C/O Berlin Talent Award
2024 – Nomination, German Photobook Award
2025 – Nomination, PHotoESPAÑA Best Photography Book of the Year
Text
2025 – tagebuch.at
2025 – faz.net