‘C’est la vie. Press photography since 1940’
09.11.2011 – 19.05.2013
Frozen Lake Biel, 1941 (Key Visual).
© Swiss National Museum
    |
From 9 November 2012, the exhibition of the extensive archive of press photographs first staged at the National Museum in Zurich can be seen at Prangins Castle. The exhibition looks at recent Swiss history from the perspective of the press photographers and reveals how, in the second half of the 20th century, press photography developed into the photojournalism we know today. Housed in three original pavilions by the designer and engineer Jean Prouvé from the 1940s, ‘C’est la vie’ includes meticulously composed photographs depicting political events, episodes from everyday life, unforgettable moments, candid pictures of wellknown personalities and portraits of everyday heroes. It also shows how the extensive photo reportages of the early years were superseded by individual snapshots – initially still in black and white, then in colour. New methods of image transfer and printing technologies enabled ever-increasing numbers of up-to-the-minute photos to appear in the daily press. From the 1960s onwards, the illustrated weekly press went into decline. The exhibition illustrates this process by juxtaposing an analogue picture agency from the 1940s with its present-day digital counterpart. |
print page
send article
to the top