Georg Gerster

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Photo book by Georg Gerster: "Grand Design, the earth from above"

Georg Gerster (born April 30, 1928 in Winterthur ; † February 8, 2019 in Zumikon ) was a Swiss journalist , photographer and a pioneer of aerial photography .

Life

Georg Gerster: Boeing 747-357, HB-IGD "Basel" in flight over Matterhorn and Dent Blanche

Georg Gerster studied at the University of Zurich , where he received his doctorate in German in 1954 . Until 1956 he worked as a scientific editor for the Zürcher Weltwoche . He then worked as a freelance journalist with a focus on science reporting and flight photography. He did pioneering work in this photographic field in the 1950s and 1960s and later held a leading position. This not only applies to the technology and quality of his flight images, but above all to the universality and internationality of the topics. Such a work of aerial photography can only be found with Yann Arthus-Bertrand .

From 1959 Gerster produced photo reports and illustrated books. Since the 1960s, he has documented archaeological sites of all kinds in more than 100 countries on all continents: from Stonehenge to the Great Wall of China , from the temples of Abu Simbel , which had to give way to the Aswan Dam , to Aztec places of worship and monumental stone drawings in the California desert . But he also captured mountains and deserts, coasts and lakes, agricultural and industrial landscapes photographically in aerial photographs.

Georg Gerster was awarded the Prix ​​Nadar in 1976, and in 1977 he received the City of Winterthur's Culture Prize . His photos have been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Europe, Japan and the USA and are also frequently featured in publications. Gerster died in February 2019 at the age of 90.

plant

Georg Gerster published pictures and texts regularly in internationally renowned newspapers and periodicals such as the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , the National Geographic Magazine , the Sunday Times Magazine and the Geo magazine . From 1971 to 1996 he made recordings for the airline Swissair , which were used in 44 advertising posters and wall calendars designed by Emil Schulthess. In doing so, he shaped the visual appearance of this company.

His photographs are not only considered technical masterpieces and precise documents, but also offer special views of the world in their beauty. Often, due to the unusual view and the surprising, strange or exotic subjects, his pictures are more like picture puzzles, which he is able to explain through his journalistically trained specialist commentary in such a way that the viewer must inevitably be interested in his concern: he is concerned with the preservation of the earth .

On the one hand, Gerster optically emphasized the beauty of the landscape, which he likes to photograph vertically from above - often from a low height. On the other hand, in his comments he always pointed out how nature, despite or because of its beauty, is endangered worldwide by civilization, overexploitation , erosion or technology and mechanization. His captions and book texts show that he didn't just want to take “beautiful pictures”, which testify to an in-depth examination of the photographed landscape, its residents, including the living conditions and their history. Right from the start, Gerster's special concern was the - at least photographic - preservation of historical and archaeological sites.

Exhibitions

Publications (selection)

  • Nubia - gold country on the Nile. Artemis, Zurich / Stuttgart 1964.
  • with Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt : The world will save Abu Simbel. Koska, Vienna 1968.
  • Churches in the rock. Discoveries in Ethiopia. Verlag Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1968.
  • Ethiopia. The roof of Africa. Atlantis Verlag, Zurich / Freiburg i. Br. 1974.
  • Man on his earth. A flight image. Freiburg, Zurich 1975, ISBN 3-7611-0468-5 .
  • Bread and salt. Basel / Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-7643-1692-6 .
  • Shards make history. In: Geo-Magazin . Hamburg 1980, 8, pp. 40-56. Informative experience report about the excavations at Ebla in Syria, ISSN  0342-8311 .
  • Bread and salt: traces in the earth. In: Geo-Magazin. Hamburg 1980, 9, pp. 8-33. In 2000 hours of flight, Gerster documented forms of agriculture and salt production, ISSN  0342-8311 .
  • Flight images. Basel / Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-7643-1697-7 .
  • Flight into the past - archaeological sites of mankind in flight images. Munich 2003, ISBN 3-8296-0094-1 .
  • with Ralf-Bernhard Wartke : Aerial images from Syria. From ancient to modern. Publishing house Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2003.
  • Worldviews. Schirmer / Mosel, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-8296-0154-9 (70 aerial photos from the six continents - a quintessence of life's work).
  • Aerographic. Poster calendar (yearly), for 2005: ISBN 3-8318-1239-X , for 2006: ISBN 3-8318-2154-2 .
  • Charlotte Trümpler (Ed.): Flight into the past. Archaeological sites of mankind in aerial images. Verlag Schirmer / Mosel, Munich 2005. 4th edition, ISBN 3-8296-0190-5 .
  • Johannes Nollé , Hertha Schwarz: With the eyes of the gods. Aerial images of ancient and Byzantine Greece. With aerial photos by Georg Gerster. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2006, ISBN 978-3-8053-3379-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neue Zürcher Zeitung of February 14, 2019: The Vulnerable Beauty of the Earth , by Thomas Ribi , accessed on February 14, 2019
  2. ↑ a b Daniele Muscionico: The aesthetic shock painter - flight pictures by Georg Gerster in the Photo Foundation Switzerland . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . No. 64 . Zurich March 18, 2013, p. 13 .
personal data
SURNAME Gerster, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss photographer and aerial photography pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Winterthur , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH February 8, 2019
Place of death Zumikon