WERNER BISCHOF: CARNETS DE ROUTE
Chronicle of an exemplary life, this biography of Werner Bischof, studded with excerpts from his correspondence and his diary, and illustrated with his photographs and sketches, presents the photographer’s surprising journey, from his student years in design school to his travels through post-war Europe, Japan, and South America. Bischof was a Swiss photographer and photojournalist. He pursued, during his short life, a double quest. That of a certain order of things, magnified by a constantly controlled sense of light, but also that of a social order disrupted by wars. He thought of himself as an artist. His images of near universal chaos, from famine in India to Peru, where he died in an accident in 1956, are famous. Bischof was equally gifted as a writer and draftsman: his letters, diaries excerpts and the drawings and watercolors in the book come from his son Marco’s Zurich archive. “Durant sa brève carrière (tout juste vingt ans), il s’est montré également doué pour gérer un studio photo, parcourir le monde et se mêler à des gens de tous milieux et de plusieurs continents.” (In French)