Photo Foundation Switzerland

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The Swiss Photo Foundation (officially the Swiss Foundation for Photography ) in Winterthur was founded in Zurich in 1971 and is committed to the preservation, cataloging and communication of photographic works .

It maintains a collection that to date includes over 50 bequests and around 50,000 original prints. The focus of the collection is on Swiss photography of the 20th century. The Swiss Photo Foundation organizes three exhibitions a year in its own premises in Winterthur, issues publications on the history of photography in Switzerland and purchases current photographs. The collection is supplemented by permanent loans from the Swiss Confederation and the internationally oriented collection of the Friends of the Swiss Photo Foundation. Together with the Fotomuseum Winterthur, the Swiss Photo Foundation operates the Center for Photography, which maintains a public specialist library on the subject of photography.

Mission statement of the foundation

The Swiss Photo Foundation is a national and international foundation that is dedicated to the medium of photography, its history and its importance in our time. One of its most important tasks is to build up a collection that represents Switzerland's photography from its beginnings to the present. The collected works are stored and archived in accordance with modern conservation standards. As a non-profit organization, the foundation aims to make its collection accessible to a broader public. It organizes exhibitions, issues publications, publishes selected holdings on the Internet and makes works available for reproduction in books and media. It works with other museums and archives to safeguard and convey Switzerland's photographic heritage.

The Swiss Photo Foundation views photography from two perspectives: as a historical document and as an artistic means of expression. She works to ensure that photographic images are preserved in their materiality so that they can be used as documents or understood as works of art . She tries to research and document the collected photographs in the context of their creation and original use. It promotes the scientific processing of its holdings with targeted projects. In this way, it carries out basic research on the history of photography, the visual memory of Switzerland and an interdisciplinary image science . She also deals with current developments in the medium by including works by contemporary photographers in her collection and putting them up for discussion in exhibitions or publications.

collection

The collection includes around 50,000 exhibition prints, 250,000 archive prints and over 1 million negatives and slides . On behalf of the Federal Office of Culture , the Swiss Photo Foundation also looks after the archives and estates of outstanding photographers. The bequests consist of more or less complete negative archives, original prints, contact copies, publication records and documents. Some archives have already been processed and have been presented in publications and exhibitions, for example those by Hans Baumgartner, Walter Bosshard, Kurt Blum, Gertrud Dübi-Müller, Henriette Grindat, Martin Imboden, Hans Peter Klauser, Herbert Matter, Gotthard Schuh, Emil Schulthess and Hans Staub. Other bequests have not yet been processed or only partially processed. In addition to the extensive photography collection in Switzerland from 1840 onwards, the Swiss Photo Foundation also looks after the Confederation's collection.

Collection concept

The Swiss Photo Foundation primarily collects photographic works related to Switzerland, from the beginnings of photography to the present day (Helvetica). She takes into account artistic forms of expression as well as documentary, applied and private forms of photography. Photographers who have made a significant contribution to the development and renewal of photographic modes of expression with their work (“author photography”) as well as works of national and international importance are of great importance. The collection comprises, on the one hand, entire archives or bequests (including negatives, positives, documents) from photographers and, on the other hand, a targeted collection of individual photographic works and groups of works. When taking over private photographers' archives, the Swiss Photo Foundation also takes over the copyrights wherever possible in order to be able to represent the authors and their works in all matters. In some cases, she also looks after the collections of third parties, provided that they fit into the overarching collection concept or supplement the collection in a meaningful way. The Swiss Photography Foundation basically organizes its collection according to the authors of the works. Where this is not possible, she chooses photographic genres or themes as classification criteria.

The Swiss Photo Foundation endeavors to regularly supplement and expand its collection (through donations, purchases, permanent loans). An important criterion is to cover as many independent positions and different historical manifestations of photography as possible. The overriding aim of the collection is to pass on Switzerland's photographic heritage to future generations in an exemplary manner and in the form of originals. The collection of the Fotostiftung Schweiz also includes printed photographs (books and magazines), which in some cases have the status of works.

The Swiss Photo Foundation keeps an inventory in which the collected works are described according to content, technical and material criteria. She documents her collection with an electronic database , some of which is also publicly accessible. In addition, she keeps the image database collection online on e-pics, in which she stores digital copies and makes them available for reproductions .

The collections managed by the Swiss Photo Foundation also include

  • Photo collection of the Swiss Confederation
  • Collection of the "Friends of the Swiss Photo Foundation"
  • Photo collection of the Swiss Werkbund (SWB)
  • Interartes photo collection
  • Master collection of the Swiss Photographers Association SPHV
  • Martin Lehner Collection
  • Bernhard Rickenbach Collection

Photographers of the collection (selection)

criticism

Lack of important legacies from 20th century Swiss photography

The Swiss Foundation for Photography lacks a total of seven estates from internationally important Swiss photographers of the 20th century when it comes to the care and management of usage rights for photographs: The archive of photographer Paul Senn (1901–1953) was transferred to the Kunstmuseum Bern in 1982 and becomes managed by this. The Gottfried Keller Foundation Winterthur holds the copyright for Paul Senn's recordings. The estate of the legendary Swiss photo teacher at the Zurich School of Applied Arts (now ZHdK, Zurich University of the Arts ), Hans Finsler (1891–1972), is managed by the Moritzberg Art Museum. The intellecutal property of the important representative of the new photography and the new objectivity was donated to the museum in 1986. The work of the famous Swiss Magnum photographer Werner Bischof (1916–1954), who was a particularly talented student of Hans Finsler, is managed by his son, Marco Bischof. The photographer, publisher, filmmaker and photo editor, Ernst Scheidegger (1923–2016), also a student of Hans Finsler, set up his own Ernst Scheidegger Archive Foundation in 2010. Also René Burri (1933-2014), member of the famous Magnum photo agency and gifted student of Hans Finsler, did not trust the Swiss Foundation for Photography his estate. With the creation of his Fondation René Burri, before his death in 2013, he arranged for the care and management of his estate to be carried out by the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, founded by Charles-Henri Favrod and directed by the same for many years. The Swiss photographer Sabine Weiss, who lives in Paris and was born in 1924, decided in 2017 that her estate should be looked after by the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne after her death. Finally, the care and management of the legacy of the legendary Swiss-American photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank (1924–2019) is not the responsibility of the Swiss Foundation for Photography.

The predicate “Swiss” is questionable and disproportionate

Experts in photography criticize the fact that the foundation is unable to fulfill the established purpose of the foundation in a comprehensive sense due to the lack of extremely important bequests from exponents of Swiss photography, all of whom are famous author photographers of the 20th century. It is also criticized that the rating “Swiss” and the exclusive monetary support from the federal government, the canton of Zurich and the city of Winterthur to the foundation are not justified and disproportionate in the long term.

Support association

The collection of the Friends of the Swiss Photo Foundation comprises around 450 photographs that were purchased by the Friends of the Photo Foundation over a period of more than twenty years (1985–2006). The focus of the collection are the 1920s ("neue fotografie" in Germany), the 1930s ( Farm Security Administration in the USA), the 1950s (" subjective photography " in various European countries), artist portraits ( Dali , Picasso and others) as well larger groups of photographs from Brazil and Japan.

After the collection goals were redefined in 2008, the Friends of the Swiss Photo Foundation are now primarily buying groups of works by photographers who have enriched the contemporary Swiss photo landscape with distinctive, individual accents. For example, the purchase for 2015 included the work "Haiti - The Perpetual Liberation 1997–2015" by Thomas Kern (* 1965), the work "Japan" by Dominic Nahr (* 1983) and Virginie Rebetez (* 1979) Work group "Packing". All of the main topics complement areas that are also central to the collection activities of the Swiss Photo Foundation. The collection of the Friends of the Swiss Photo Foundation is on permanent loan from the Photo Foundation. The top-class photographers in the collection include Eugène Atget , Bill Brandt , Walker Evans , Man Ray and August Sander .

Center for Photography

Together with the Fotomuseum Winterthur, the Swiss Photo Foundation forms the center for photography. This runs a public specialist library with around 20,000 books on the subject of photography and participates as part of teaching assignments in the history and theory of photography course created at the University of Zurich in 2007 .

In 2002/03, the Swiss Photo Foundation and the Winterthur Photo Museum rebuilt part of the "Loop" industrial area in order to enable a wide variety of approaches to the medium of photography. The two independent institutions pursue different objectives in the jointly managed center: The Photo Museum primarily presents international, contemporary photography and masters of photography history, the Swiss Photo Foundation is primarily involved in the area of ​​"patrimoine photographique". A total of 1300m² is available for temporary exhibitions and collection presentations, and there are also air-conditioned depots for black and white and color photography and black and white negatives, the specialist library, seminar rooms as well as a shop, a lounge and the "George" museum bistro.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry of the "Swiss Foundation for Photography" in the commercial register of the Canton of Zurich
  2. ^ Website of the Paul Senn project in the Kunstmuseum Bern Paul Senn , accessed on April 24, 2020.
  3. ^ Kunstmuseum Moritzberg, Photography Collection, Hans Finsler , accessed on April 24, 2020.
  4. ↑ Werner Bischof's website, Werner Bischof Estate , accessed on April 24, 2020.
  5. ^ Website of the Ernst Scheidegger Archive Foundation , accessed on April 24, 2020.
  6. ↑ René Burri in the Musée de l'Elysée , accessed on April 24, 2020.
  7. ↑ Swantje Karich: Seducing the moment to last. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine , updated on October 21, 2014, accessed on May 21, 2020.
  8. ↑ Internal photo: July 7, 2017 Sabine Weiss' estate goes to the Musée Elysée , July 7, 2017, accessed on April 24, 2020.
  9. ↑ Moneyhouse: Swiss Foundation for Photography , accessed on April 24, 2020.