Walter Bosshard (photographer)

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Walter Bosshard (born November 8, 1892 in Saturdayern / Switzerland; † November 18, 1975 in Ronda / Spain) was a Swiss photographer and reporter . He played a key role in shaping the style of the illustrated magazines that became popular in the late 1920s and is considered a pioneer of modern photojournalism .

«With his spectacular reports on Gandhi and Mao, the war between Japan and China or his daring expeditions to Tibet, Turkestan and Inner Mongolia, he caused a worldwide sensation as early as 1930. During the Second World War he followed the events of the Allies as a correspondent for the NZZ.

- Distant vision. Walter Bosshard - a pioneer of modern photojournalism : From the foreword by Hugo Loetscher .

life and work

Bosshard studied pedagogy and art history in Zurich and Florence and trained as a primary school teacher at the Küsnacht canton school . From 1911 to 1913 he did his active service . From 1914 to 1918 he worked as a teacher in Feldmeilen . At first photography was just his hobby, he was self-taught .

In 1919 Bosshard gave up his teaching activity and went to Sumatra to work as a manager on a plantation and then as a gem dealer in the Far East . In 1927/28 he took part as a technician in the German Central Asia expedition to Kashmir and Xinjiang led by Emil Trinkler . His first photo reportage arose from the photographs he took during this time. His exotic pictures from distant countries were in great demand, and he received orders from various magazines such as the Berliner Illustrirten Zeitung and the Münchner Illustrierte Presse .

In 1929 Mohammed Nadir was crowned as the new Shah of Afghanistan . Only three foreign journalists were allowed to attend the enthronement and the celebrations: the American William L. Shirer , the Austrian Harald Lechenperg and Walter Bosshard. In 1930 he was sent to India by the German Photo Service (Dephot) , where he succeeded in taking a series of photographs from the private life of Mahatma Gandhi , who otherwise shied away from the public. He then reported from Siam , Cambodia , the Shan states , the Upper Mekong Valley , French Laos and Annam . In 1931 he was in Nanjing , where he was able to record an encounter with Marshal Chiang Kai-shek and, once again , presented a photo report about Mao Zedong that received a lot of attention . In the same year he made a photo report on the polar flight of the airship Graf Zeppelin for the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung . In 1932 he also toured Singapore , Bangkok , the Philippines and Japan . In 1933 he documented the Manchuria crisis , reported from Shanghai and took part in a German geographical Kokonor expedition. He then was a correspondent in Beijing until 1939 , where he mainly worked for the American agency Black Star . In March 1934 he experienced Puyi's coronation as emperor in Manchukuo , and from 1934 to 1936 he traveled through China , including Inner Mongolia .

In 1939 he became the foreign correspondent for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) and increasingly worked as a reporter and less as a photographer. He was a war correspondent in Poland, Greece, Iraq and Iran; from 1942 to 1945 he was stationed in Washington and observer of the San Francisco Conference , the Yalta Conference and the beginnings of the United Nations . From 1946 to 1949 he went to Beijing again, where he had to flee from the Communist invasion and where he lost a large number of his photographic works. From 1949 to 1953 he worked as a correspondent in the Middle East.

An accident in Korea in 1953 - he tripped over a tree root and suffered a complicated hip fracture - ended his professional career. He withdrew into private life and lived in Torremolinos and Ronda in Spain until his death , where he died shortly after his 83rd birthday.

Estates

Paul Hofer, Bosshard's godchild and heir, bequeathed the written estate to the Archives for Contemporary History (AfZ) at ETH Zurich . The inventory includes diary-like records and collections of articles, including almost all of the NZZ reports from 1939 to 1956, documents and manuscripts for his books, supplemented by 20,000 positives and negatives, slides, glass plates, large albums and films. The Swiss Photo Foundation, which holds the majority of the negative collection as well as supplementary materials, carried out a project co-financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation together with the AfZ , the result of which was a complete directory of both holdings, a book publication and an exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich on the work in 1997/98 Bosshards was.

Publications

  • Through Tibet and Turkestan. 1930.
  • India is fighting! 1931.
  • Experienced world history. Travels and encounters of a neutral reporter in the World War 1939-1945. With 44 shots. , Fretz and Wasmuth 1947.
  • Cool grassland Mongolia , Gutenberg Book Guild 1952.
  • Danger in the world , Gutenberg Book Guild 1954.
  • Generals, kings, rebels. 1954.
  • Thut, History from Sudan , Fretz & Wasmuth 1960.
  • In the golden sands of Asswan , Orell Füssli 1962.

Photographic material

In the estate of Bosshard at the Swiss Photo Foundation in Winterthur there is extensive photo material on his travels and photo reports, among other things

  • Plantation work and gem trade in the Far East 1919-1925,
  • Expeditions 1926-1932 Kashmir, Central Asia, India, Afghanistan, Siam, Kama, Shan States, Upper Mekong Valley, French Laos, Annam, Sino-Japanese War 1931/32,
  • Singapore, Bangkok, Philippines, Japan; Stay in China 1933-1939
  • German Koko-Nor expedition, coronation of the emperor, travels in Jehol and in Mongolia, hunting in Manchuria, Yangtze, Sino-Japanese War 1937,
  • Yenan, Siam, Battle for Hankow; World War II (War Reporting, USA) 1938-1944
  • Post war 1945-1956

Movies

  • Beijing, 1934
  • Friends in Beijing, 1934
  • Imperial coronation in Hsinking, 1934
  • Manchuria, No. 1, ca.1935
  • Mongolia, Part I and II, ca.1936
  • All sorts of things from China, 1936
  • From Tientsin to Shanghai, 1937
  • Siam I, 1938
  • Siam Lobpburi, sd
  • Evacuation Children, 1938
  • Yenan, Parts I and II, 1938
  • World's Fair in New York, 1939
  • Pacific Canada, 1939
  • Plymouth-Rome, sd
  • USA-Canada 1943-1944. From Washington to Williamsburg - Dripstone Caves in Canada, 1944
  • Beijing 1947, August 1st celebration, private, 1947
  • Beijing: Gates, Street, Temple, Magician, Opium, Forbidden City, ca.1954
  • Great Wall, Shanghai, Pagoda of Power in Lungwa, sd

literature

  • Peter Pfrunder, Verena Münzer and Annemarie Hürlimann: Fernsicht. Walter Bosshard - a pioneer of modern photojournalism . Benteli 1997. ISBN 3-7165-1082-3 .
  • Cornell Capa: The International Center of Photography Encyclopedia of Photography. Random House 1986.
  • Anton Holzer: At Mao in China - Peter Pfrunder in conversation about the photojournalist Walter Bosshard . In: Photo History, Issue 149, p. 49 ff., Jonas Verlag. ISSN 0720-5260

documentary

  • Mathias Haentjes: Walter Bosshard - A Chinese Diary , Fruitmarket Film, Cologne, 90 min. Cinema documentary 2007 (DE / CH)

Remarks

  1. ^ Prof. Paul Hofer, Chair for Urban Design History at the ETH Zurich
  2. ↑ From the announcement: Walter Bosshard: The first man who photographed Mao in the thirties. The Swiss photographer and journalist is looking for love, personal fulfillment and adventure in China. But after several years of exciting events, adventures and encounters, he has to move on empty-handed.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bosshard, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss photographer and reporter
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Saturdays
DATE OF DEATH 18th November 1975
Place of death Ronda