GOTTHARD SCHUH | PHOTOGRAPHER

Gotthard Schuh (1897-1969) is regarded as one of the outstanding photographers of the 20th century. Not only was he a pioneer of modern photojournalism, but he also developed a personal style which may be described as “poetic realism”. Schuh was aware of the fact that the photographic view of the world is always subjective and that the photographer needs to become completely absorbed in a particular situation in order to grasp it intuitively. Forty years after Schuh’s death, the Fotostiftung Schweiz inspected and reprocessed the photographer’s estate, which had been entrusted to its care. This retrospective exhibition, which is accompanied by an extensive monograph, principally acknowledges the subjective gaze that essentially holds Schuh’s pictorial cosmos together – what he himself called “a kind of infatuation”.

   © Gotthard Schuh, ca. 1938-39, Preparing a fighting cock, Bali

Fumadores de opio, Java, 1938.

Lyrical and subjective, many of Schuh’s photos suggest open-ended, mysteriously romantic stories.

Mujeres cingalesas en el ferrocarril de Medan, Sumatra, 1938. Schuh Gotthard.

Noche de invierno ante el teatro municipal de Zurich, 1932. Schuh Gotthard.

Nuns in front of Leonardos's Last Supper, Milan, 1955

Verano-1955. Schuh Gotthard.

All images © Gotthard Schuh