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29/8/2008

Swiss Alpine Photography

ArteF Galerie, Zurich

Atmosphere, grandeur, purity – mountain images have triggered intense feelings and fascinated people ever since photographers first explored the subject in the middle of the 19th century. It is therefore astonishing that there has never been a significant photography exhibition on this theme in Switzerland. The «Swiss Alpine Photography» exhibition aims to fill this gap with a first-class selection of Swiss mountain photographs. In the first half of the twentieth century, when the Swiss Alps – not least through the influence of photography – became a landscape of cure and culture, the sale of mountain images was a profitable business. In every large spa resort there was at least one photographer’s studio, where, alongside portraits, mountain landscapes were in great demand. The most famous of these alpine photographers today is Albert Steiner (1877-1968) from the Bernese highlands, who owned a photography business in St. Moritz from 1909. Greater than his contemporaries, who were concerned with a more documentary style, Steiner focused on the tradition of painting, and above all on Giovanni Segantini and Ferdinand Hodler. Steiner’s photographs of the Upper Engadine lakes region, where his spiritual and symbolic approach to nature is reflected, have significantly shaped our sense of Switzerland as an alpine country of timeless beauty.

However, still to be discovered is Bartholome Schocher (1901-1979) from Pontresina. The son of a mountain guide and chamois hunter, who was a pioneer of Engadine alpinism, Schocher was likewise an enthusiastic mountain climber and often accompanied his father on tours with his old plate camera. His seemingly classic landscape photographs are distinguished by careful composition and effective light-dark shades. In «Durchblick zur Berninagruppe» (View of Bernina mountain range), for example, the brightly lit, eternally snow-covered mountain range in the background contrasts effectively with the dark trees in the foreground. Andreas Pedrett (1892–1977) came to be known above all for images of high mountain ranges. He also owned a photography business in St. Moritz from 1917. In the exhibition one of his rare images can be seen, which shows an old, bearded man sitting on a gnarled larch. A partly snow-covered mountain valley stretches across the background, the threatening clouds announcing a change in the weather.

At first there were painted landscapes, which fulfilled people’s desire for an ideal world, close to nature. Later photography took over this role. In contrast to painting, photography reflects the subject more richly, more accurately and more diversely and as a medium of individual, artistic expression has long enjoyed this same high regard. In addition to images from the first half of the twentieth century, the «Swiss Alpine Photography» exhibition also includes mountain images by contemporary photographers such as Roberto Raineri-Seith (1959) und Jean-Pascal Imsand (1960-1994).

Photographers
Frères Charnaux, Paul Faiss, Foto Flury, Jean Gaberell, Emile Gos, Romedo Guler, Emanuel Gyger, Alfred Heinze, Jean-Pascal Imsand, Arnold Klopfenstein, Emil Meerkämper, Andreas Pedrett, Othmar Rutz, Wilhelm Salzborn, Bartholome Schocher, Foto Schönwetter, Gustav Sommer, Albert Steiner, Roberto Raineri-Seith, Othmar Rutz.

Opening Saturday, August 30, 11 - 17 pm

ArteF Galerie
Splugenstrasse 11 - Zurich
Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday, 13.00 – 18.00 Saturday, 11.00 – 16.00
Free admission

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