BIO

Austin Settle is an American visual artist working in Vienna, specializing in post-photography. Working exclusively with analog color transparencies, Settle physically manipulates the film's emulsion layers through techniques he has developed over fifteen years, creating works that exist between photography, painting, and sculpture. His process involves carving, burning, and reworking found slides and family photographs, which are then scanned at high resolution to reveal microscopic details invisible to the naked eye.

Settle holds a BA in Art History from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions including Past:Present, curated by Esther Hladik at Frei.Haus, Vienna, and in site-specific commissions for the Diesel Flagship Store, Vienna and Munich and Hotel Lamee, Vienna. Recent group exhibitions include Establishing Connection at Vienna Art Week and Parallel Art Fair Vienna. His work is held in the collections of BP Austria, Deloitte Austria, and Diesel (EU), as well as prominent private collections.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My practice operates within the expanded field of post-photography, treating the image not as a window to the world, but as a physical site of intervention and a reconstruction of "home." I have spent fifteen years mastering and cultivating this practice, which stemmed from pushing the limits of the apparatus through complex in-camera multi-exposures and experimental darkroom processes. I began this journey in the early 2000s, during the industry-wide pivot toward digital adoption; while the medium was being untethered from its physical roots, I remained anchored in the analog. I have never wavered from these roots; my work has never utilized digital manipulation or AI.

Seeking a more unmediated connection to the medium, I moved beyond the lens to engage directly with the physical substrate of film and chromogenic prints. This shift was driven by a lifelong, visceral nostalgia—a "treasure hunter’s" instinct that evolved into a role of custodian for discarded histories. Beginning with a collection of abandoned 35mm slides found in Vienna, I developed a process of "substraaktion": the surgical carving and burning of analog emulsion. Rather than treating film as a static record, I view it as an archaeological site.

By meticulously manipulating these stratigraphic layers, I unlock the latent painterly potential of the photographic emulsion. This approach is most evident in my non-figurative captures, where the subject is the material itself—its fractures, rifts, and prismatic nebulas. These analog interventions are scanned and enlarged as archival editions, remaining faithful to the raw, physical fractures of the original substrate. Supported by the analysis of Colin Gardner, my practice invites a condition of being "in-photo"—a material encounter where the light of a rescued past meets the physical urgency of the human hand.

CV

Born in San Jose, California; lives and works in Vienna, Austria

EDUCATION

2002 BA in Art History, UC Santa Barbara

Self-taught photographer and video artist

EXHIBITIONS (Selection)

2025

  • Past:Present, curated by Esther Hladik, Vienna, Austria (Solo)

  • Establishing Connection, Vienna Art Week, Vienna, Austria (Group)

2020

  • Light in Boxes / TV Signal, Open Studio Show, Vienna, Austria

  • Hotel Leo Grand, Vienna, Austria (Group)

2019

  • Take Festival for Independent Fashion and Art, Vienna, Austria (Group)

  • Parallel Art Fair, Flying Gallery, Vienna, Austria (Group)

  • In/Studio, Atelier Bauernmarkt 9, Vienna, Austria (Solo)

2016

  • One Day Show / STUDIOS, Lenikus Collection, Vienna, Austria (Solo)

2015

  • Liquid Forms, STUDIOS, Lenikus Collection, Vienna, Austria (Solo)

2014

  • Pop-up Studio, Residency at Lenikus Collection, Vienna, Austria

  • Open Studio, Vienna, Austria

2013

  • Projection Art, Site Specific Installation, Hotel Lamee, Vienna, Austria

2012

  • ART SUITE, Vienna, Austria (Group)

  • Lisabirds Art Collective, Artpark Villabulfon, Klagenfurt, Austria (Group)

  • Site Specific Installation, Flagship Diesel Store, Vienna, Austria (Solo)

2011

  • Young Art Auction, Vienna, Austria (Group)

  • The Flow Art Alliance, Vienna, Austria (Group)

  • Art Hotel Elisabeth Group Show, Ischgl, Austria (Group)

  • Art Salon Vienna, Vienna, Austria (Group)

COLLECTIONS (Selection)

  • BP Austria

  • Lenikus Collection

  • Deloitte Austria

  • Diesel (EU)

  • Private Collection René Russo