The recently published book Genève en photographies anciennes (Geneva in old photographs) is both a tribute to Geneva's pioneering photographers and a history of the city's urban development. Through some 200 photographs, most of them previously unpublished, drawn from their rich collection, Viviane and Christophe Blatt document the changing face of the city, from the walled city to the city of wide thoroughfares. The 210 photographs presented here show a face of Geneva that has now almost entirely disappeared. Most have never been published before, and the oldest photo in the book dates from 1850. At that time, the city had changed very little since the eighteenth century. We can see the Place du Molard, still closed off from the lake, or the Île and its lower streets surrounded by a network of small houses and alleyways. As soon as the fortifications were demolished in 1849, the face of the city began to change: Latin-sailed barges unloaded the stones brought from Meillerie at the port of Eaux-Vives, to be used in the construction of ‘modern’ buildings. On the plateau des Tranchées, the Russian church stands out in the middle of a vast wasteland.
The beautiful preface by prof. Olivier Fatio underlines the contrast between Geneva's long medieval appearance and the dynamism of the Fazist revolution.
Geneva was home to a large number of photographers, pioneers of a nascent art form whose names are rarely known to the general public. These craftsmen were often painters or draughtsmen; there were also chemists, opticians and watchmakers. To succeed in their new profession, they had to have a sound knowledge of mechanics, optics and chemistry. This book is a tribute to our predecessors,’ explain Viviane and Christophe Blatt. Their work was long and complicated at the time, and 150 years on, their photographs still inspire us.
The book includes an introduction by Nicolas Crispini, photographer, photography historian and exhibition curator, who paints a vivid portrait of the history of photography and its great Genevan names. A detailed index also provides at-a-glance details of all the photographs on display: author, location, date, process and dimensions.
About the authors, Viviane and Christophe Blatt : Brought together by a shared passion for photography - they met at the Société Genevoise de Photographie over fifty years ago - Viviane and Christophe Blatt founded their company, Lightmotif, in 1977. Over the years, the photography workshop has been joined by an image bank representing 17 Swiss photographers, an iconography service, and a postcard and book publishing business. Passionate image seekers, their collection totals some 20,000 images, including around 3,000 from Geneva. The collection is marketed through the lightmotif-vintage.com website.
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