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Switzerland

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Towns in Switzerland (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Towns in Switzerland (1890s)

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In 1798, the revolutionary French government invaded Switzerland and imposed a new unified constitution. This centralised the government of the country, effectively abolishing the cantons: moreover, Mülhausen joined France and the Valtellina valley became part of the Cisalpine Republic, separating from Switzerland. The new regime, known as the Helvetic Republic, was highly unpopular. An invading foreign army had imposed and…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Unterwald, Switzerland (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Unterwald, Switzerland (1890s)

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The name Unterwalden is first recorded in 1304, as the translation of Latin inter silvas, which together with in intramontanis was the name for monastery possessions in the area. In 1291, Rudolf I of Germany purchased the estates at Stans, Alpnach and Giswil. From 1304, the local bailiffs used their own seal. In 1309, Henry VII confirmed the imperial immediacy…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Lucerne, Switzerland (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Lucerne, Switzerland (1890s)

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It was during the latter part of the 19th century that Lucerne became a popular destination for artists, royalty and others to escape to. The German composer Richard Wagner established a residence at Tribschen in 1866 from which he lived and worked. The city was then boosted by a visit by Queen Victoria to the city in 1868, during which…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Valais, Switzerland (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Valais, Switzerland (1890s)

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In the early 17th century, the aristocratic governors of the districts in the Upper Valais pressured the prince-bishop of Sion to abdicate secular power, which was achieved temporarily in 1613 and then permanently in 1634, when the country became the federal Republic of the Seven Tithings under the rule of a Landeshauptmann. The republic in its original form existed until…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Grisons, Switzerland (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Grisons, Switzerland (1890s)

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In 1798, the lands of the canton of the Grisons became part of the Helvetic Republic as the canton of Raetia except Valtellina, which was separated in 1797 for joining the Cisalpine Republic. It was later part of the Empire of Austria in 1814 before joining the Kingdom of Italy in 1859. With the Act of Mediation the “perpetual ally”…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Lake Lucerne, Switzerland (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Lake Lucerne, Switzerland (1890s)

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Lake Lucerne is singularly irregular and appears to lie in four different valleys, all related to the conformation of the adjoining mountains. The central portion of the lake lies in two parallel valleys whose direction is from west to east, the one lying north, the other south of the ridge of the Bürgenstock. These are connected through a narrow strait,…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Bernese Oberland, Switzerland (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Bernese Oberland, Switzerland (1890s)

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In 1729, Albrecht von Haller published the poem Die Alpen about his travels through the alpine regions. This combined with other reports and alpine paintings started the tourism industry in the Bernese Oberland. By 1800 there were resorts on Lake Thun and Lake Brienz (especially at Interlaken between the two lakes). Shortly thereafter the resorts expanded into the alpine valleys…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Tessin, Switzerland (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Tessin, Switzerland (1890s)

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In the early 19th century, the contemporary Franco-Danish scholar Conrad Malte-Brun stated that: “The canton of Tesino [Ticino] is the poorest, and the people the most ignorant of any in Switzerland. The finest silk in the district is obtained at Lugano, a small town situated on the banks of a lake.” Until 1878 the three largest cities, Bellinzona, Lugano and…
René Groebli: Early Work

René Groebli: Early Work

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Who is René Groebli? He is a blind spot. Perhaps he is the proverbial blind spot, the “Missing Link” in the history of modern Swiss photography. The first to notice him was the American photographer and curator Edward Steichen, the visionary Steichen who had towards the end of the 1940s established at the New York Museum of Modern Art the…
Historic B&W photos of Zurich, Switzerland (19th century)

Historic B&W photos of Zurich, Switzerland (19th century)

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Extensive developments took place during the 19th century. From 1847, the Spanisch-Brötli-Bahn, the first railway on Swiss territory, connected Zürich with Baden, putting the Zürich Hauptbahnhof at the origin of the Swiss rail network. The present building of the Hauptbahnhof (the main railway station) dates to 1871. Zürich’s Bahnhofstrasse (Station Street) was laid out in 1867, and the Zürich Stock…
Life, a Sport. Jules Decrauzat – A Pioneer of Photo-reportage

Life, a Sport. Jules Decrauzat – A Pioneer of Photo-reportage

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A great find: almost 1,250 glass negatives dating from between 1910 and 1925 that had defied the ravages of time in the archive of the Swiss picture agency Keystone. While the quality of those photographs was well known, the circumstances under which they were taken were largely obscure. Now, thanks to thorough research work, a new chapter in the history…
Paul Strand – Photography and Film for the 20th Century

Paul Strand – Photography and Film for the 20th Century

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Fotomuseum Winterthur presents the first major retrospective in Europe of the work of Paul Strand (1890 – 1976), one of the great modernist photographers of the twentieth century. Drawing from a recent major acquisition of 3,000 prints by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the exhibition shows the evolution of Strand’s work over six dec-ades. It reveals the multiplicity of his…