shooting booth

Among my contrast themes, the country fair is especially important. Its life at night always fascinated me, like this shooting booth lady, for instance,” related Werner Berg.

For centuries, the Bleiburg fair has taken place at the beginning of September, “this mustering of Lower Carinthia,” as Werner Berg once referred to it, where the people stream in from all over to buy and sell. Each year, the itinerant showmen, booth owners, merchants, exotic animals, tents, wagons, carousels and swingboats, the rural drinkers, bowlers and couples gave Berg three days during which he could dive into a different world of images. Standing at the edge of the hustle, he often depicted the market life in numerous sketches, which later served as the points of departure for many of his oil paintings and woodcuts.