René Groebli

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René Groebli (* 9. October 1927 in Zurich ) is a Swiss photographer and trained Documentary - cameraman . He ran a photo studio for industrial and advertising photography and a company for color photography , dye transfer and color lithographs. He also carried out free artistic photo essays.

Life

schooldays

René Groebli grew up in the Enge district of the city of Zurich, where he first attended the long-term high school. After two years he switched to the Oberrealschule , a science-oriented short-term high school . He also broke off this training after two years. He began an apprenticeship as a photographer with Theo Vonow in Zurich in 1944. When his teacher left the city to return to his native Bündnerland , Groebli was accepted into the preliminary course at the Zurich School of Applied Arts as an obligatory preparation for a specialist class . He attended this from the spring of 1945. He then switched to the renowned photography class under the direction of Hans Finsler and Alfred Willimann. He also broke off this training after the probationary period, the first quarter of spring, which lasted until the summer vacation of 1946. Ernst Scheidegger and Anita Nietz were among the students who completed and successfully completed the three-year photographer training at the same time as René Groebli . At Central Film and Gloria Film Zurich, René Groebli began training as a documentary cameraman in September 1946, which he completed with a diploma in late 1948.

First professional years as a photographer

Groebli never actively worked as a documentary cameraman. From 1949 he worked as a photo reporter and carried out assignments for the Zürcher Woche and later for the London agency Black Star in Africa and the Middle East. The pictures were published in Life and Picture Post magazines . Groebli brought out his first small photo folder Magie der Schiene with 15 photographs in 1949 through his own publishing house “Kubus”; his second, narrow illustrated book Das Auge der Liebe in 1954, self-published by «Turnus». The illustrated book Das Auge der Liebe was created in collaboration with his wife Rita Groebli (1923–2013). She had successfully completed the specialist class for applied and visual arts at the Zurich School of Applied Arts under the direction of specialist teacher Otto Morach . The graphic artist Werner Zryd designed the pages. Experts rated the “little book” as graphically respectable, and it was also said to have photographic quality . In the Schweizerische Photo-Rundschau , published by the Swiss Photographers Association, there was a public exchange of letters between the editor of the photo magazine , Hermann König, and a specialist teacher from the arts and crafts school. The book had been passed around among the apprentices and discussed heatedly. The term "love" in the title seemed too poetic to the young people, if the picture story was obviously primarily about the physical. The romantic mood that the photographer wanted to create with the associative series of images, according to his own statements made to the editor, was perceived by the recipients as primarily a sexualized mood. The editor Edwin Arnet complained in the leading medium Neue Zürcher Zeitung about the visual emphasis on nudity. With his photographs, Groebli told the story of a woman who met a man in a cheap hotel . The last photograph shows a woman's hand with a wedding ring on her ring finger and an almost finished “cigarette afterwards”, which was an obvious reference to the previous cohabitation in the hotel room. The associative photo story led to the conclusion that the woman had to be either an "easy girl", a prostitute or a wife who was cheating. In Switzerland it was known that the pictured was Groebli's wife, Rita. Many did not approve of the "little book" because they perceived the photographs as exposing Groebli's wife, especially since the men used the visually told story with the nude photographs by Rita Groebli in the 1950s for sexual stimulation .

Together with the Swiss photographers Werner Bischof , Robert Frank Gotthard Schuh and Sabine Weiss, René Groebli was represented with a picture in the exhibition The Family of Man , which Edward Steichen curated for the Museum of Modern Art in New York. After the death of the photo reporter Paul Senn in 1953 and the unexpected passing of Werner Bischof in 1954, Robert Frank and René Groebli were newly accepted into the College of Swiss Photographers. This was soon dissolved due to disagreements between Gotthard Schuh and Jakob Tuggener . At this point, Groebli had already said goodbye to photojournalism.

Photo studio and company

In 1955, Groebli began setting up his own studio for commercial industrial and advertising photography in the newly built residential and studio building in Zurich- Wollishofen . Among the first well-trained photographers who worked for him were Rolf Lyssy , Margareth Bollinger, Roland Glättli, Ruth Wüst, Roland Gretler , Marlies Tschopp and others. Many well-known graphic artists such as Werner Zryd, Victor N. Cohen, Karl Gerstner and Manfred Tulke gave the studio lucrative photo assignments. In 1957, the American photo magazine Popular Photography published a twelve-page series of photos under the title René Groebli - Master of Color in its Color Annual , the annual edition on color photography . From around the end of the 1990s, Groebli let it be known that he had been honored as Master of Color in the renowned American Color Annual . However, it was just a somewhat lurid title of an article in a consumer magazine on photography.

In the 1950s, Groebli had the dye transfer prints based on color slides of the commercial photographic works realized in his studio by the specialists Werner Bruggmann in Winterthur and Raymund Schlauch in Frauenfeld. On April 18, 1959, he founded together with Hans-Peter Roth-Grieder (Gutenswil), RA Baezner (Geneva), P. Grieder (Zurich) and Dr. WH Vock (Basel) founded “Turnus Film AG” with a librated share capital of 270,000 Swiss francs. Groebli signed as president. In connection with the film production "Bonditis" there was a rift in 1964.

At the end of the 1950s, Groebli had his residential and studio building rebuilt and enlarged. In the new rooms he set up an actual small business. The color films were developed in our own laboratory. In addition to the two photo studios and the two black and white laboratories, there was also a dye transfer studio with several laboratory workstations. The dye transfer enlargements, which are laborious to produce and correspondingly expensive, were good business. The professional photographer and dye transfer specialist Ruedi Butz managed the studio from 1960 to 1972. John Whitehall was one of the particularly creative and technically experienced employees of the dye transfer studio. From 1972 to 1978 Derek Dawson took over the management of the dye transfer production.

In 1963, together with the lithographer Walter Guler, Groebli founded the limited partnership Groebli + Guler, renamed Guler + Co for photolithos in 1968. In the 1960s and early 1970s, up to twelve employees worked in Groebli's company at peak times. At that time, the money flowed abundantly in advertising photography. The workplace in Zurich-Wollishofen was equipped with the latest and best technical equipment. With his studios, Groebli was considered one of Zurich's top dogs in the field of commercial photography and photo production. Important employees who worked at Groebli from the 1960s to the late 1970s included photographers Felix Eidenbenz, Lotti Fetzer, Tom Hebting, Matthias Hofstetter, Peter Oberle, Anna Halm Schudel and Peter Schudel, Liselotte Straub, Katharina Vonow, and Heinz Walti, the trainee Dona de Carli, the reproduction photographer Jean-Pierre Trümpler, the laboratory assistants Sylvette Françoise Trümpler-Hofmann and Uschi Schliep, the apprentice Alfred Berther and Nicolas Deichmann, Herbert Hegner, Bruno Lienhard, Walter Rieder and Hans Samsom.

Book publications on color photography

After ten years of existence of the studios for commercial advertising and industrial photography specializing in color photography, dye transfer production and color lithographs, Groebli published the third photo book Variation in 1965 by Arthur Niggli Verlag, Teufen. It represented a retrospective of the possibilities of color photography; this is also the name of the subtitle of the illustrated book. Apart from Groebli, under Photolithos: Groebli and Guler, Zurich, his business partner Walter Guler is mentioned. The many outstanding professional photographers, ambitious volunteers, specialists in the dye transfer process, photolithographers, photo lab technicians and apprentices who worked in his company and who had made significant contributions to the success of the commercial photographs are all unmentioned. In the text written by Groebli himself, he tried to give the impression that it was his monographic retrospective. He wrote either in the first person singular or of himself in the third person singular as "the photographer" or "the color photographer". In the appendix, in addition to the technical information on the individual photographs, the companies are named as clients. All of them go unmentioned, however, the many outstanding graphic artists who went with their concepts and sketches to the studios for advertising and industrial photography, dye transfer, color photography and chromolithography in Zurich-Wollishofen, so that their visual ideas could be photographically implemented according to their wishes.

In the second photo book on color photography, Variation 2 , published in 1971, Groebli mentioned twelve of his employees under “Thanks”. However, there is a shortage of many other workers who, in turn, had made important contributions to the success of the photographs.

End of commercial photography

In the 1970s, talented young photographers, including former Groebli employees, opened their own photo studios. With their new, innovative ideas, they were in great demand in advertising agencies. The “golden days of lucrative advertising photography” were drawing to a close; the pressure of competition increased. At the end of the 1970s, Groebli gave up his business for commercial photography and color products, sold his residential and studio house and withdrew. He devoted himself again to his free photographic essays in color and in black and white: The works Fantasies , Ireland , Die Muschel , Burned Trees , NY Visions , New York Melancholia and Nudes were created . Towards the end of the 20th century and during the first decade of the 21st century, he worked on his image archive and digitized the most important photographs that had been taken over the course of 60 years.

Book publications

  • Magic of the Rail. Texts: Hans Ulrich Gasser, Albert Ehrismann. Kubus Verlag, Zurich 1949.
  • The eye of love. Text: Walter Gort Bishop. 25 photos. Turnus Verlag, Zurich 1954.
  • Variation. Color photography possibilities. Niggli, Teufen 1965.
  • Variation 2. Communicative possibilities of color photography. Niggli, Teufen 1971.
  • Fantasies. 47 photographs. Images Gallery, New York / Galerie Portfolio, Lausanne. 1978.
  • Visions. Photographs 1946–1991. Text: Martin Schaub. Niggli, Sulgen 1992.
  • Ireland. Syndor Press, Cham 2000.
  • Rail Magic. Andy Jllien Gallery, Zurich 2006.
  • The eye of love. Text: Walter Gort Bischof, Birgit Filzmaier. 30 photos. Sturm & Drang Verlag, Zurich 2014.
  • Beryl Chen. Text: Reto Caduff. Sturm & Drang Verlag, Zurich 2015.
  • Early work. Text: Daniele Muscionico. Sturm & Drang Verlag, Zurich 2015.
  • London 1949. Sturm & Drang Verlag, Zurich 2016.
  • Nudes. Text: Daniel Blochwitz. Sturm & Drang Verlag, Zurich 2016.

Awards

  • 1951: Federal grant
  • 1953: Prix d'encouragement
  • 1960: Prize and medal for "Exemplary advertising design for Bayer" from the Swiss Advertising Association
  • 1966: Graphic artist award of the German commercial graphic artist
  • 1974: Award of Excellence Typography Type Directors Club, New York (USA)
  • 1983: Swiss Association of Photographers, honorary member
  • 2006: Photo 06, Lifetime Award

Exhibitions

  • 1949: Bern, Anliker-Keller
  • 1955: Zurich, Gallery 16
  • 1966: Rapperswil, Gallery 58
  • 1978: Arles, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie
  • 1978: Lausanne, Gallery Portfolio
  • 1978: New York, Images Gallery
  • 1979: Au SG, Galerie Neufeld
  • 1979: Bordeaux, Galerie Contact
  • 1979: Cologne, Limbach Gallery
  • 1979: Paris, FNAC-Etoile
  • 1979: Toulouse, Galerie Dieuzadie
  • 1984: Zurich, Poseidon Gallery
  • 1985: Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (F), Galerie Djélal
  • 1991: Tarazona (E), Tarazona 91
  • 1992: Geneva, Center de la Photographie
  • 1992: Paris, Mois de la Photo
  • 1992: Zurich, Renée Ziegler Gallery
  • 1993: Cottbus, Brandenburg Art Collection
  • 1995: La Ciotat (F), La Chapelle de Pénitenciers
  • 1998: Paris, Camera Obscura Gallery
  • 1999: Zurich, Kunsthaus , Movement - Experiment - Vision (large retrospective)
  • 1999: Zurich, Swiss Foundation for Photography
  • 2001: Zurich, Galerie Commercio
  • 2002: Küsnacht, Nikon Image House
  • 2002: Paris, Paris Photo, Stande Csaba Morocz
  • 2002: Zurich, Fondation Koenig
  • 2003: Basel, Galerie Stasia Hutter
  • 2003: San Francisco, Robert Koch Gallery
  • 2003: Zug, Galerie De Artis,
  • 2005: Cologne, gallery in focus
  • 2006: Leipzig, Camera and Photo Museum
  • 2006: Zurich, Andy Jllien Gallery, Retrospective
  • 2008: Hamburg, Aplanat Galerie, Retrospective
  • 2009: Berlin, Hiltawsky Gallery, Retrospective
  • 2009: Cologne, gallery in focus
  • 2012: Hermance, Auer Ory Foundation
  • 2012: Geneva, Carry on SA gallery
  • 2014: Zurich, Photo Bastion
  • 2016: Kilchberg, Bildhalle
  • 2017: 'My first 90 years', Johanna Breede PHOTOKUNST
  • 2017: Zurich, Bildhalle
  • 2020: Zurich, Bildhalle
  • 2020: Cologne, in focus gallery

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann König: "The eye of love". Dear Otto! Open letter dated February 23, 1955 to Otto (no surname), the teacher at the Zurich School of Applied Arts. In: Swiss Photo Review. Ed .: Swiss Photographers Association, N ° 4/1955, February 23, 1955, Volume 20, p. 75.
  2. ↑ Otto (without surname): "The eye of love". My dear! Open letter dated March 23, 1955 to Hermann König, the editor of the Swiss Photo Rundschau. In: Swiss Photo Review. Ed .: Schweizerischer Photographenverband, N ° 6/1955, 23 March 1955, 20th year, p. 117.
  3. ↑ Otto (without surname): And again: "The eye of love". My dear! Open letter dated April 23, 1955 to Hermann König, the editor of the Swiss Photo Rundschau. In: Swiss Photo Review. Ed .: Swiss Photographers Association, N ° 8/1955, April 23, 1955, Volume 20, p. 165.
  4. ^ Edwin Arnet: Three photo books by Swiss photographers. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. The weekend. Morning issue No. 3057, Sheet 4, Weekend 49, Saturday, December 4, 1954.
  5. ↑ Margareth Bollinger  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: eMuseum. Zurich University of the Arts, Museum of Design Zurich, ZHdK archive.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.emuseum.ch  
  6. ↑ Margareth Bollinger in the online work on historical photography in Switzerland, fotoCH, accessed on March 6, 2017.
  7. ↑ Roland Gretler in the online work on historical photography in Switzerland, fotoCH, accessed on March 6, 2017.
  8. ↑ Victor N. Cohen  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Advico Young & Rubicam AG, Zurich, CH. eMuseum. Zurich University of the Arts, Museum of Design Zurich, ZHdK archive.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.emuseum.ch  
  9. ↑ Bruce Downes (Ed.): René Groebli - Master of Color. In: Ders .: Popular Photography Color Annual. 1957. 15 photographs by René Groebli, eight of them in color. New York. Pp. 106-117.
  10. ↑ Rotus Informations 1. Eight- page brochure, 1962.
  11. ↑ Felix Eidenbenz's website
  12. ↑ Tom Hebting's website
  13. ^ Website of Matthias Hofstetter
  14. ^ Website of Anna Halm and Peter Schudel
  15. ↑ Katharina Vonow's website
  16. ↑ Heinz Walti in the online work on historical photography in Switzerland, fotoCH, accessed on March 6, 2017
  17. ↑ Dona de Carli in the online work on historical photography in Switzerland, fotoCH, accessed on March 6, 2017
  18. ^ René Groebli: Introduction. Introduction. Introduction. Chapter 1. Color photography in «natural» colors. Chapter I. Color photography in “natural” colors. Chapitre I. Les couleurs “naturelles”. Chapter II. Photographing with colored light. Chapter II. Photography with colored light. Chapitre II. La lumière colorée. Chapter III. Color photography with a color tendency. Chapter III. Color photos with a color tendency. Chapitre III. La prédominance d'une color. Chapter IV. Color conversion and experiments. Chapter IV. Color transformations and experiments. Chapitre IV. Transposition de couleurs et expériences. In: Ders .: Variation. Possibility of color photography. Some suggested uses of color photography. Possibilities of photography in color. Arthur Niggli publishing house. Teufen, 1965, pp. 8-13, 17-19, 37-39, 57-59, 73-75.
  19. ↑ Holdings of Variation 1965 in libraries of Swiss universities according to the Swissbib online query of March 6, 2017.
  20. ↑ René Groebli: Appendix. In: Ders .: Variation. Possibility of color photography. Some suggested uses of color photography. Possibilities of photography in color. Arthur Niggli publishing house. Teufen, 1965, pp. 98-111.
  21. ↑ René Groebli / Rolf Kriesi: Various accompanying texts. In: René Groebli: Variation 2. Communicative possibilities of color photography. Some suggested uses of communicative color photography. Possibilities communicatives de la photographie en couleurs. Between aesthetics and documentation. The photographer can be more communicative! Between aesthetics and documentation: photography can be more communicative! Entre l'esthétique et la documentation: La photographie peut devenir plus communicative! The photographer as an image builder. The photographer as image maker. Le photographe créateur d'images. The photographer as a communicator. The photographer as communicator. Le photographe pourvoyeur de communications. The photographer as an analyst. The photographer as analyst. Le photographe analyste. The photographer as an experimenter. The photographer as experimenter. Le photographe expérimentateur. The photographer as an "audio visionary". The photographer as "audio visionary". Le photographe “audio-visualiste”. The photographer as a portraitist. The photographer as portraitist. Le photographe portraitiste. Thank you! A word of thanks. Merci !. Experimental color rendering. Experimental color transformations. Transformations expérimentales en couleurs. Dye transfer color enlargements. Dye transfer color enlargements. Agrandissements en couleurs Dye Transfer. Photographic equipment. Photographic equipment. Equipment photographique. Captions and technical details. Captions and technical details. Legends et details techniques. Niggli Verlag, Teufen 1971, pp. 14–19, 22–29, 60–69, 82–87, 88–96, 106–111, 122–127, 146–147, 148–150, 151, 152–157, 158-165.
  22. ↑ Current exhibition: René Groebli - The Magic Eye. R Gallery website, accessed March 15, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Groebli, René
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss photographer and documentary cameraman
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich