Archive of Places. Collecting strategies for a photographic archive on spatial development
Research project at Zurich University of the Arts/Institute for Contemporary Art Research
Project management: Ulrich Görlich, Meret Wandeler
Research associate: Lydia Lymbourides
Partners: Prints and Drawings Department at the Swiss National Library, Town of Schlieren, Engadine Tourist Board, St. Moritz
Duration: 2008–2010
An extensive picture research project on two different regions that are both representative of Swiss culture—Schlieren, a suburban municipality in the midlands, and the tourist region of Upper Engadine around St. Moritz—for the period from 1945 to the present.
Switzerland’s towns and landscapes have been subjected to profound changes since World War II. Urban sprawl in the midlands and in Alpine regions has led to new forms of settlement. Institutions devoted to the photographic documentation of places and landscapes face the question of how to reflect these transformations in their collections. The mandate of the Swiss National Library’s Prints and Drawings Department is to archive Switzerland’s cultural heritage in pictorial form, with a particular emphasis on views of places and special topics relates to Switzerland. Its Views of Places Collection contains pictures from all of Switzerland’s cantons, mainly produced in the context of postcard photography. For the postwar period, there are gaps in this collection.
Picture research Upper Engadine
Archive Montabella Foto + Verlag (photography and publishing company)
Archive Andrea Pitsch AG (construction firm)
Archive Town of St. Moritz Building Department
Picture research Schlieren
Archive Paul Furrer/Association for Local History Schlieren
Archive Hans Bachmann/Association for Local History Schlieren
Archive Inventory of the cultural-history object of the town of Schlieren
The point of departure for the “Archive of Places” project was the question of where photographs documenting the spatial development of Switzerland since 1945 have been produced and archived. The core of the project was an extensive program of picture research in two different regions that are both representative of Swiss culture: in Schlieren, a suburban municipality in the midlands, and the tourist region of Upper Engadine around St. Moritz. The researchers for the first time systematically viewed local inventories: archives of construction firms, architectural and urban planning offices, locally-based companies, postcard publishers, municipal offices, the regional and national press, as well as local archives on cultural history and people’s private collections. These applied photography created for specific purposes, used as “operational images” in planning and construction processes, for advertising, and in political discussions, constitute an extremely rich source for the documentation of spatial change in various fields: architecture, transport, agriculture, tourism. In the regions in question, however, these bodies of material are largely unknown, not properly archived, and not accessible to the public.
The results of the project are two model photographic collections on Schlieren and the Upper Engadine for the period 1945–2008, each with ca. 3000 images. They can be viewed online at www.archiv-des-ortes.ch. They also form the basis for further development of the collecting concept of the Prints and Drawings Deptartment at the Swiss National Library. The collecting strategies and selection criteria developed in the context of this project are transferable to other Swiss regions.
Book: On Common Ground
Based on the bodies of material viewed for this project, Ulrich Görlich and Meret Wandeler realized the book On Common Ground. Schlieren – Upper Engadine. Photographs of Spatial Development in Suburban Regions and in the Alps since 1945.
Two photo spreads with a total of 240 photographs from 1945 to the present are arranged one on top of the other: on the upper half of the page is a photo from Schlieren, on the lower half, one from Upper Engadine. This largely unknown material shows neither cultural monuments nor unspoiled nature, but built-up space as it is inhabited and used. Two parallel transformation processes overlap in the series of images: that of the photographed objects and that of the photographic perspective. The juxtaposition of photographs from a suburban municipality in the midlands and a tourist region in the Alps reveals manifold relations, discrepancies, and parallels in the development of the two areas.
Schlieren, a town with a current population of roughly 18,000, developed from a farming village to a trade and service location. Typical spatial developments for the midlands can be observed here: expansion of residential areas into the countryside, adaptation of the living environment to traffic patterns, and conversion of former industrial sites. Upper Engadine has become one of Europe’s most renowned holiday areas. The book concentrates on St. Moritz as an important international tourist destination, on Samedan, the area’s administrative center, and on the lake district between Silvaplana and Maloja. The photographs from this area exemplify tourism-based development of landscapes and towns in the Alpine region.
An accompanying essay by Christian Schmid analyses the role of photographic representations in the debate on urbanization in Switzerland. Werner Huber and René Hornung wrote brief portraits of the two regions. The photographs are complemented by Meret Wandeler’s essay on the bodies of material viewed for the research project and how those involved worked with this material.
Ulrich Görlich, Meret Wandeler:
On Common Ground. Schlieren – Upper Engadine. Photographs of Spatial Development in Suburban Regions and in the Alps since 1945.
With essays by René Hornung, Werner Huber, Christian Schmid, and Meret Wandeler
In English and German
176 pages, 240 color and b/w illustrations
Hardback, 24 × 32.5 cm
ISBN 978-3-85881-347-3
Verlag Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich 2012
www.scheidegger-spiess.ch