Konrad Rufus Müller

As a regular guest in Lech, the photographer Konrad Rufus Müller was asked in the winter of 1993 whether he could imagine portraying the residents of Lech. As part of this project, forty black-and-white portraits of very different personalities from the village were shot. The portraits were published by Haymon in 1994, together with some of Müller’s landscape and interior photographs and texts by the writer Michael Köhlmeier from Vorarlberg, under the title Die Leute von Lech.

Katia and Gerold Schneider were able to acquire the entire series. During the major renovation in 2015 and 2016, they finally found a suitable place for a permanent exhibition of the works – in  foyer of the Almhof, which is generally open to external visitors throughout the year.

In 2018, Katia and Gerold asked the artist, a quarter of a century after the first publication, to portray the next generation.

During the 2019/20 winter season, an additional cross-section of Müller’s life’s work was shown at allmeinde commongrounds under the title Schreiben mit Licht [Writing with Light].

The volume 100 Portraits der Leute von Lech, published in December 2023, brings together both series of portraits – 40 from 1993/94 and 60 from 2018/2022. Konrad accompanied the making of this volume until his death in November 2023.