Mila Palm is a collector, curator, gallerist and one of the promoters of the Vienna Vintage Photo Fair. Prior to the 2025 edition of the fair, she spoke about her life in photography and the philosophy behind her gallery, Milaneum.
Can you tell me a little about your early interest in photography and/or the visual arts?
– My parents are both visual artists and collectors so I was always surrounded by a fine selection of “cultural civilizational waste”. Even as a child, I hunted for anything that appealed to me visually or synesthetically at flea markets, primarily objects from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Did you study photography?
– I studied paper and photography conservation as well as art history. The department is located at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna I also spent a year in Paris to deepen my understanding of historical photography techniques. But I primarily generated my knowledge from my own collection. I started collecting photography from the moment I was able to understand it. The higher the cognitive superstructure became and the intensity of the engagement increased, the more I became engrossed in it.
What do you collect?
– I am constantly driven by my passion to find new sources of images and to satisfy my hunting instinct and thirst for knowledge, so I cannot answer this question. I have a preference for objects of great rarity and media on the verge of disappearance, discontinued traditions and symbols just about to lose their meanings. I am also attracted to exotic biographies and emotionally loaded subjects. What I do not collect – not only for economic reasons – are famous names and anything that has already achieved the status of art.
In my picture cabinet of curiosities, memorabilia and finds from several centuries come together. Basically, I make distinctions between those objects that I am specifically looking for to complete a project, or to get an answer for a specific question, and those that are brought to me.
Can you tell me about one such project?
– In recent years, I have collected a lot of information on the history of money in photography and other media, images of butchers, shop windows, mirrors and bats, and I have done exhibitions on these topics. I ended up with about 1000 different examples. But with the medium of postcards, it was possible to expand the theme to 5000 items. To give you an example, I created categories such as “money in hands”, “money bags”, “banks”, “jobs involved with money”, “money and animals”, “greed and money”, “money and women”, “bankruptcy”, “money in times of war”, “money in caricatures”, as “symbols of luck”, etc., including, of course, photo postcards. This study collection enables me to take a much more differentiated look at image ideas in photography. Which images were part of everyday culture, which were taken up by amateurs – which by artists, who does imitate whom, in what order – and why?
You have presented an interesting exhibition on bats.
– After dismantling an exhibition, I usually leave the objects in boxes in my shop. This is why hundreds of bat images now populate my shop and serve as my logo. I started with graphics when I began my collection of bats, because this medium offered me additional 400 years of visual culture and scientific depictions and colour. For me, the process and the result of searching, finding, categorizing, selecting and abstracting serves as a basis for research. The drive is the search for connections, authenticity and a broadening of horizons, through witnesses of other times and worlds. What ends up in the shop is on the one hand a by-product of this activity, and on the other, also a selection of my own preferences. This simulacrum should serve as a hinge between like-minded people.
How has your collecting grown over the years, in terms of themes, periods etc.?
– During my studies in conservation, I focused on collecting old photo frames and photo-related objects. It was the first time I systematically built a collection in order to generate new knowledge from it. After that, I constantly created new categories by which I sorted and searched for objects. In recent years, I became interested in postcards from around 1900, an ingenious and democratic format for image ideas, which lost importance with the advent of the telephone. In this format, I was able to devote myself very precisely to individual topics that were and still are important to people.
The large selection, especially of anonymous and non-pre-curated material, offers an ideal playground for the creative mind. You can learn a lot about our society from everyday photography. It can reveal internalized values and structures. And when I look at today’s exhibitions and media, I am particularly struck by the hierarchies, the gaps and censorship. For me, the individual approach to the beginning of the media hamster wheel is a revelation. Dealing with the originals gives me a very direct and emotional approach. To be perfectly honest, the main purpose of my shop and gallery is actually having people bring me unfiltered material, preferable still with a connection to the origin.
You started working as a curator at Fotografie & Grafik in 2010. What exhibitions have you produced there?
– Initially, I was supported by a dealer for historical scientific instruments and cabinet of curiosities, Wisskab in Vienna. We published a book on early expedition photography in 2012 and one on nature printing in 2014. In 2015 I mounted an exhibition on the subject of photo frames, “Framed Memory”, at Bonartes Photography Institute, headed by Monika Faber, with whom I have been working for many years. My exhibitions and books are primarily based on my own collection. After my studies, in 2017, I set up my own business Milaneum. At the beginning I only showed exhibitions based on topics that interested me, but they seemed too difficult for the public to grasp, “The Emperor in caricature”, “Death in photography”, “The erotic in photography”, “Money in photography and other media”, etc. After that I adapted a bit to the situation because an approach which is too progressive appears to trigger a negative response.
You opened Galerie MILANEUM in 2017.
– My first showroom was in the centre of Vienna. Tourists who passed by would ask me if there was an entrance fee to my gallery, why I was doing it and how I acquired the objects. The mainstream art audience was shocked because the photos were cheaper than their lunch! In 2019, I moved my gallery to the 7th district, to Westbahnstrasse, known as “The Vienna photo district”. Westlicht Photo Museum has its premises in the same building.
Can you tell me about the gallery, exhibitions and the works you offer for sale?
– Every three months, I create a thematic exhibition based on my collection. In recent years I have created exhibitions on the topic of the Moon, Ice, “Edeldruck” (“Fine Printing”), Bats, Dance, Animals, Photographed photographers, etc. Most of the photos cost around 100 euros. My main customers are artists and people from the creative industries who are looking for copyright-free images. At the moment I have examples of the history of colour photography on display.
The gallery has a unique identity.
– At Milaneum, art and everyday culture meet, the boundaries blur. Many of the objects are only preserved because they have been collected before, as emotionally charged memorabilia for instance. However, the references have been lost, but through a new selection process, they can be given a new lease of life. The focus is on everyday photography, including amateur, press, street, industrial and product photography, scientific photography, erotica and much more. In contrast to art photography, everyday photos often have no author. Amateurs take photos without a commission and independently of the art market. Pricing is a particular challenge and takes into account size, quality, condition, prints, documentary value and significance in the history of images. Many of these photos without names are small, not perfect, with signs of wear, unique or very small editions.
The selection is based on instinct, rarity, ingenuity, subject, emotional impact, aura, aesthetic and/or documentary value. Sometimes it is precisely the aesthetics of the “imperfect” or the mysteriousness, the enigma, that is the real attraction. Unique pieces are picked out from the flood of images, the cross-section of collective memory and the fund of photographic history. This requires a lot of material, a lot of time and a well-trained eye. The identification and research are only the beginning of a longer process. On an economical level, this never pays off, especially as the social class which once produced these images has dissolved (particularly since the waning of the Austrian Empire around 1900). My reward is mainly the photos people bring to me.
How would you describe the vintage photo scene in Austria?
– In Austria, there isn’t much of a tradition for collecting photography I am not known internationally because I don’t show at the big photo fairs and I don’t sell online. I mainly know antique dealers who have now found a side job in photography. Then there are a few creative people who work with historical photography for up to 50 euros. There is no photography museum. Westlicht is a photography association, Bonartes is a photography research institute. From time to time, museums show exhibitions with their own holdings. I would not talk about a “scene”, there are singular interests that have not yet found a home, so there is still a lot of work to do. At the moment I am my own best customer but I there are dealers who are interested in my stock. Instead of single photos, I would prefer to pass on estates or complete collections as so much time and energy is concentrated there. At some point I would like to just curate and rent out exhibitions. I hold hundreds of photo categories and estates, mainly from the period 1850-1950.
Do you sense that the market vintage photography is beginning to grow in Austria?
– For the smartphone generation, this immersion in a physical image cosmos that has been created over generations is no longer a matter of course. With dematerialization, the ubiquitous availability and speed of access to information, our thinking and perception have changed. The analogue photo has now become a rarity, and image consumption is tailored precisely to the individual. That is why young people enjoy this contrast program, which offers a tactile experience when rummaging through the 1-euro snapshot box, the chance and the diverse range of ideas that encourage autonomous thinking. The aura of the original entices people to examine their origins, their history and to take imaginary trips into the past. Transience and aging, which are hidden in the digital world, are given a reference point again. But I have not yet found a solution to finding a financial reflection of this.
I have ideas on how to implement vintage photography recycling. I would love to remove all the junk from the museum shops and set up my own thematically curated vintage picture shop instead, only unique pieces, unframed, 1-100 euros. I have enough material to do that. End, beginning and new beginning, guided by human creativity and emotions. There could be gift vouchers for workshops for all age groups, in image competence for lens-based culture. I’m reminded of a quote by Walter Benjamin from 1931 “Not the illiterate of type, but the illiterate of photography will be the illiterate of the future”. As AI-generated images start to take over, this is truer than ever.
When we met in Paris, you mentioned that you are often offered whole archives, so many that you are struggling with storage space.
– In the last 15 years, property prices in Vienna have risen sharply. State-owned properties are either sold or optimized, sometimes historical archives are also affected. The digital revolution took place around 2000, and press archives began to vanish. Following the war in Ukraine, energy prices and rents have increased, leading many photographers to empty their studios. Artists and collectors have had to reduce their spaces. I don’t like the idea of storing the cultural quintessence of my favourite medium in a container in some industrial area, when so many buildings in the city centre – where these photos were once produced, are inhabited by investment firms. My guess is that there is far more analogue photography is being thrown away than being preserved. It would be desirable to at least curate this process in some way and handle these memories with more dignity.
Aren’t the Austrian institutions taking responsibility?
– Institutions are often sluggish and individual curators have limited scope for action. They are usually unable to take on larger holdings because their resources are limited. In recent years, most have housed their collections in the area surrounding Vienna. I have not yet been able to sell a photo to a museum in Austria, and the estates that I have tried to pass on to them have been rejected.
When and how did the idea for the Vienna Vintage Photo Fair emerge?
– In 2023, I sat down with my colleague, Reinhold Mittersakschmöller and the photo enthusiast and fine art printmaker Stefan Fiedler. We were all very keen on the idea of a fair, especially since there is too little activity in this area. Going back in time, around 1900, Vienna was an epicentre of photography, with names like Ettinghausen, Martin, Petzval, Voigtländer and Josef Maria Eder. We were familiar with the table top fairs in other cities, like Paris, Amsterdam, New York and London. In 2023, Foto Wien offered us an ideal supporting program to connect with art-loving audiences. The idea is to give the scene a meeting place and to motivate new, especially younger audiences. With extremely affordable table rental, we are open to everyone, but the quality of the selection has to be right. We are idealists.
Can you tell me a little about the fair, the exhibitors and the audience?
– The Vienna Vintage Photo fair started in June of 2023 with about 30 dealers in one hall in the central location of the MuseumsQuartier Vienna. The second fair, in April of 2024, held in two halls, featured 35 dealers, some antiquarians and photobook publishers, two photo conservation experts as well as two photo schools and a collodion wet plate photographer. Some dealers came from France, others from the Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany and even Argentina. We counted 1000 visitors that day. Many of them were young people (20+) since we strive for educating the next generation of photo enthusiasts and collectors. In addition to the event in April, we teamed up with WestLicht for a X-Mas Special Fair in December of 2024 and it attracted 20 international dealers and more than 800 visitors.
How is the 2025 edition of the fair shaping up?
– The fair will be held on 6 April and will host about 40 international dealers – including two from England – a market which has unfortunately become somewhat isolated since Brexit. This year’s innovations will be a dealer-only intermingle on Saturday afternoon as well as an early bird access on Sunday between 8 and 10 am, for an affordable 20 euros.
Our visitors are students, teachers, curators, photographers, etc. The public provides the opportunity to access three centuries of photography tradition, without barriers. From the different techniques, science to art photography, press photos and snapshots, the approaches can be extremely varied. I think the best customers are the dealers themselves. The private public and curators still need a convincing before their first buying their 100-euro vintage print. But the interest is definitely there.
How do you see the fair growing in the future?
– Our aim is to further expand the network between all related areas. In each country there are only a few specialist dealers, and it would be great if they could meet in Vienna too. If the Vienna Vintage Photo Fair grows any bigger, we will have to think about a bigger venue which is not an easy feat. The MuseumsQuartier Vienna is very well known, very central and easily accessible. The X-Mas Special events will shorten the off-season. We are surprised that there are no historic photo fairs, at least that we know of, in countries like Germany and Italy. We think there might be some potential worth considering. If we could find an institutional sponsor, or a nearby cultural event, at least someone who would provide us with the space for free or that we could join, that would be great. In any case, the visitors to the Vienna Vintage Photo Fair have so far all been very happy and will be back.