April 8, 2016 – Art Blart _ art and cultural memory archive

Exhibition dates: 27th January – 1st May 2016

Curators: Marco Bischof, Werner Bischof Estate, for the exhibition Point of View and Daniel Girardin, Musée de l’Elysée, for the exhibition Helvetica

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Plants
Zurich, c. 1941
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

After seven years of curating Art Blart, finally I can talk about an exhibition on one of my favourite humanist/social documentary photographers. This fact alone shows how rare it is to get to see his photographs in an exhibition, let alone display them online, such is the control that agencies have over the artist’s work.

Personally, I prefer the earlier, more avant-garde work around the time of the Second World War which has more bite, more of a cutting edge. But then again how can you argue against the sheer beauty and formalism of Harbour of Kowloon (1952, below) or the “atmosphere” of that wondrous photograph Courtyard of the Meiji shrine (below) where the snow has been falling since 1951. I remember starting out as an artist, seeing this image and staring in disbelief at this vision.

Perhaps that is a good metaphor for Bischof’s work: that of a visionary, for you never sense the presence of the photographer in his work (unless he wants you to!) but always know that it is a Bischof photograph. The photographs are almost ego-less, which is one reason I suppose that they are so damn good. The artist gets physically close to the subject matter (as in Stallion Remus, 1944 and On the road to Cuzco, 1954) and then lets the subject reveal itself. This is such an art, to be present and absent in the work at the same time.

It is a great sadness that Bischof died so young (at age 38, when the jeep in which he was travelling plunged off a cliff in the area of Peña de Águila, in the Peruvian Andes) and that the work of such a sympathetic photographer is not as well known as the work of that other Swiss photographer, Robert Frank. Bischof’s work lives and breathes in the top echelons of photography but somehow, you never hear of him. In my humble opinion, one of the great photographers of all time.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to the Musée de l’Elysée for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Werner Bischof, Point de vue et Helvetica

An Era Defined by Exile Korean War Photos by Werner Bischof

Installation views of the exhibition Werner Bischof: Point of View and Helvetica at the Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne
Photo: © Yannick Lüthy / Musée de l’Elysée

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Oak Tree
Switzerland, c. 1941
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Demonstration on the Piazza del Duomo
Milan, Italy, 1946
© Werner Bischof / Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Enfants des rues (Street children)
Naples, Italy, 1946
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
The Swiss Worker at the steelworks of Winterthur
1943
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Stallion Remus
Avenches, Switzerland, 1944
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Ruins of the Reichstag
1946
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Brandenburg Gate
Berlin, 1946
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Streams (darkroom drawing)
1941
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Zebra Woman
1942
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Breast with grid
Zurich, Switzerland, 1941
© Werner Bischof / Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Army Boot
Zurich, Switzerland, c. 1941
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos
From the exhibition Helvetica

To mark the centenary of the birth of Swiss photographer Werner Bischof (1916-1954), the Musée de l’Elysée is presenting a retrospective of his work entitled Point of View, produced by Magnum Photos (Paris). The exhibition offers almost 200 original and sometimes unpublished prints selected from the Werner Bischof Estate (Zurich). The exhibition will also display contact sheets, books, magazines and private letters. Several projections will give a contemporary approach to his work. The exhibition will present his work in Switzerland (1934-1944), Europe (1945-1950), Asia (1951-1952), and North and South America (1953-1954).

A second exhibition, produced by the Musée de l’Elysée and entitled Helvetica focuses exclusively on Bischof’s Swiss years, the period of training, studio work fashion and advertising and then the war years in Switzerland during which he became a press photographer working for the magazine DU. The exhibition Helvetica is the subject of the first publication of the “Collection – Musée de l’Elysée”.

Text from the Musée de l’Elysée website

“The Swiss genius is an exceptional photographer possessing tremendous technical knowledge and experience for his age (he’s only 32 years old), being able to make great pictures, both inside studio (a sphere in which she gets superb results thanks to his lighting mastery, the control on the depth of field, etc) and with persons in outdoor assignments, where by means of his great humanistic sensitiveness, intuition, precision in the timing on pressing the release shutter button of his cameras, outstanding grasping to capture the most representative moments and passion for his trade, also creates very powerful and meaningful images once and again, taking care of the most minute details, even when working under the most extreme contexts, since he’s a great perfectionist… Throughout all of his career as a professional photographer, Bischof proved to be an accomplished master of medium format made using a 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 (6 x 6 cm) Rolleiflex medium format cameras. He also used a rangefinder 35 mm Leica IIIc camera with Leitz Elmar 5 cm f/3.5 lens with which he likewise got great photographs.”

Extract from José Manuel Serrano Esparza. “Werner Bischof: A Master of Photography whose work goes on being very alive,” 23rd July 2013 [Online] Cited 07/04/2016.

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Americana, USA
1954
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Aerial view of New York City
1953
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Cruising at night, New York
1953
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
S Beckenstein, New York
1953
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Reflecting house, New York
1953
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Subway signal, New York
1953
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Pedestrian, New York
1952
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Car in snowfall, New York
1953
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Bus commute, New York
1953
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954)
Rushing cars, New York
1953
© Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos

“Another timeless photographic icon in which stands out the lavish level of detail in the garment of the boy and his typical hat, along with the intricate texture of the sack he is wearing on his back, the impression of volume of his right hand, the fibrous musculature in his calves, the soft bokeh in the mountainous area which can be seen in the background and above all a millenary synergy between man and nature that Werner Bischof realised was endangered.”

~ José Manuel Serrano Esparza

“Bischof creates a kind of living landscape highlighted by its unmatched formal and compositive precision, masterfully using the natural light, obtaining plentiful details and exceedingly delicate transitions and hues of grey scales, exploiting the capacities of square medium format to the utmost. The very pure whites of the snow on the ground, the temple roof and the tree tops are likewise worth being mentioned.”

~ José Manuel Serrano Esparza