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Switzerland was a laggard in photography. But everything was soon captured: bridge piers, natural wonders, migrants. The exhibition “According to Nature” shows the diversity of photo subjects in the 19th century.
A holiday snapshot, the framed wedding photo, a mask selfie: Today photography is suitable for the masses.
Not so in the 19th century: The Swiss Photo Foundation is showing 400 photographs in Winterthur that were taken by the pioneers of the then groundbreaking technology. The Swiss pioneers were a long time coming – but the authorities were avant-garde in the mug shots.
Valais water masses in front of the French lens
With a tremendous roar, masses of water break over rocks into the depths, spit spray, gurgling rushing down into the valley. A man watches the spectacle spellbound. The black and white photograph from 1864 shows the Pissevache, a famous waterfall in Valais. The photographer skillfully used long exposure times and composition to guide the eye directly into the action.
Legend:
“Die Pissevache (Wallis)” taken around 1865. The French photographer Adolphe Braun also captured other subjects from the Valais, such as the Rhone Glacier.
Adolphe Braun / © Thomas Walther Collection
A picture of a classic Swiss natural beauty. But behind the lens there was no Swiss photographer – but the French Adolf Braun.
Swiss photography is booming belatedly
25 years after the invention of photography, the Swiss still seem a bit sleepy: “Photography in Switzerland has developed a little more slowly than abroad, such as in France or England,” says Martin Gasser. Together with Sylvie Angeli, he curated the photo exhibition “After Nature”. “The real boom doesn’t actually start until the end of the 19th century.”
Legend:
The German Friedrich von Martens, also Frédéric Martens, captured the “Märjelense” at the Aletsch Glacier (around 1854).
Friedrich von Martens / © Collection Nicolas Crispini, Genève
The exhibition impressively shows how the pictures were disseminated, what scientific, artistic and economic importance the young medium achieved in Switzerland with a slight delay. Until then photography greats like Werner Bischoff or Gotthard Schuh made Swiss reportage photography known beyond the borders of the country.
From the bridge pillar to the mug shot
But what was actually photographed in Switzerland in the 19th century? Not just the wonders of nature, which foreign tourists in particular were interested in. But also what seemed new and therefore interesting: cities, bridges, railway lines or machines.
By far the most common motif in photography was – just like today in the times of Facebook and Instagram – people: at work, at partying, in front of a magnificent backdrop.
Legend:
Popular human subject: Emanuel Friedrich Dänzer photographs his daughter around 1856. («The photographer’s daughter Marie»)
Emanuel Friedrich Dänzer / © Liestal private collection
Exactly there, in a special area of portrait photography, Switzerland was also a bit avant-garde: in search photography. «After the state was founded in 1848, the federal and cantonal authorities felt the need to control migrants and the homeless. Photography played a major role as a means of identification. ”
In Winterthur you can also see Swiss people who have not been photographed entirely voluntarily. The exhibition reveals deep insights into a country that was so poor and so wild that we can hardly imagine it today.