/In Ancient Greek, Xenos was the word for people from afar. At that point there was no distinction between guest and foreigner. The discovery of the foreigner came later. Today we experience an unpleasant renaissance of Xenophobia, the fear of foreigners. It is from this background that this photographic project has been developed – and from that also a book.

/The internationally working photographer Karlheinz Fessl, and the equally well-travelled and photographically engaged bank manager, Christian Brandstaetter want to present people who have moved to Carinthia from other countries as varied, far from the daily politics, lurid press reports or overall comments about “foreigners”, but as personalities with their own thoughts and stories to tell.

/Portraits of people from fifty countries and five continents. People from the most varying regions of this world.

/The 2 year old Ethiopian who was adopted by a couple in the Gailtal; the 92 year old, now a “St. Veiter”, from the Volga German Autonomous Republic; the important Swedish businessman who loves cruising with his Harley over the gentle hills of Carinthia, the unemployed refugee from Somalia; the war-torn Afghani with her husband and child; the Australian who has left Klagenfurt again. They are much more than the CMYK-values of their skin tones.

/Three Euros from every book sold goes to charity organisations who are dedicated to the support and integration of people with a migration background.

/The promoters and supporters of this project – as well as the people who buy it – assist by presenting the faces and stories of these “foreigners” – and suddenly they don’t seem to be so foreign anymore.