Swiss Photobook Today: From the Amazon to the Vienna Ball

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It is clear that the interest in photobooks is rising in Switzerland, as well as throughout the world, which is evidenced by a recent surge of research activity, exhibitions, new festivals and awards. The presentation of their work in bookish form has always been an attractive option for photographers, as it ofers countless possibilities of narrative and visual constructs, and is also open to experiments with materials and textures as inalienable 
features of book as an object. 

In 2013, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia launched a specifc promotion tool to support the book publication process for the Swiss photographers working with national or international publishing houses. The preference is given to the quality of the concept, the 
relevance of the theme, as well as the cutting-edge photography. 

About 30 books have been issued by now, such as international bestsellers–"The Jungle Book: contemporary stories of the Amazon and Its Fringe" by Yann Gross, (Aperture, New York, 2016), 
"Kodak City" by Catherine Leutenegger (Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2014), "Continental Drift" by famous duo–Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs (Edition Patrick Frey, Zurich, 2017), as well as publications distributed through the channels of self-publishing and small publishing houses, which are modester, but no less essential and representative of current production. 

For the Moscow exhibition "Swiss Photobook Today" Caroline Nicod, Visual Arts specialist in charge for the promotion of photography at Pro Helvetia, together with Ekaterina Zueva, curator of the festival Photobookfest, selected the twenty most relevant publications to be
exhibited at Photobookfest. The selection refects the diversity of content and form. Some authors see photography as a historical document or create conceptual designs based on 
found-footages, others are passionate about photographic abstraction, paying great attention to printing techniques and materials, and others again grasp the intimacy of a person, a community or a city through storytelling processes. 

The table design, conceived by Brian Paul Lamotte together with Malgorzata Stankiewicz, graphic designer and publisher, gives a specifc frame for each book, which can be taken 
and read, then put back at its place easily. 

From the 11th to the 13th of May, as part of the exhibition, a public educational program will be held, featuring curator, historian of photography, director of the Museum of fne arts in Le Locle Nathalie Herschdorfer, photographer and author of the project "There are no 
Homosexuals in Iran" Laurence Rasti, and editor at the Swiss publishing house Edition Patrick Frey Andreas Koller. 

The public program and exhibition are created in collaboration and with the support of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia in Switzerland and Moscow.