Through his photographs of lobbies captured in more than two hundred hotels in Vienna, Wolfgang Thaler has succeeded in portraying an entire city, the hybrid face with which it welcomes and takes leave of its guests, offcially and incognito. (Andreas Spiegl) I will argue, the hotel lobby acted, just like the Vienna Ring Road, as a centrifuge, a space that was part and parcel of modernity’s maelstrom. (Rajesh Heynickx) A lobby, a reception area captures hotel guests as they arrive; and of course a photograph also captures, albeit an image. So the photographer has used one form of capture to gain access to another. And vice versa. (Lina Morawetz) The hanging lamp crashed to the foor beside me, shattering into countless shards of glass. A woman of Asian appearance opposite me leapt in shock. (Josef Kleindienst)