When German photographer Matthias Hoch (b. 1958) first visited the Kobenzl Hotel in Salzburg, it had been vacant since 2006. The rooms were almost untouched with the silverware still in drawers, sheets on beds and curtains intact. Hoch, who has a keen interest in the history of abandoned spacesas in his recent publication, Silver Tower, Frankfurt/Main (2014)traces the hotels past through vacant and unnerving interior spaces. Embedded between the sequencing of images are hotel ephemera heralding its once respected history. ...
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When German photographer Matthias Hoch (b. 1958) first visited the Kobenzl Hotel in Salzburg, it had been vacant since 2006. The rooms were almost untouched with the silverware still in drawers, sheets on beds and curtains intact. Hoch, who has a keen interest in the history of abandoned spacesas in his recent publication, Silver Tower, Frankfurt/Main (2014)traces the hotels past through vacant and unnerving interior spaces. Embedded between the sequencing of images are hotel ephemera heralding its once respected history. Hand-typed letters dating from the early 1970s confirm the arrival of noted guests such as Richard Nixon, Margaret Thatcher and Herbert Grnemeyer and press photos document the hotels years of accommodating the rich and famous. Since the hotels closing, its fate was unknown until in 2015 when the building was earmarked to become a refugee clearing center, giving the hotels slogan, The world is at home at the Kobenzl, a whole new meaning.
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