Photo-sensible

In the age of digitally generated images, analogue methods of depicting and capturing objects, events, and impressions hold a powerful, sometimes nostalgic appeal. These thousands of glass negatives by photographer André Schmid (1836–1914), who ran the first commercial photography studio in the Swiss city of Lausanne, constitute a fascinating legacy. His images offer insights into late 19th and early 20th-century society and its norms. With their raw, artisanal expressiveness and a materiality highlighted by traces of wear, Schmid’s glass negatives unfold as a unique aesthetic that combines realism, transience, and poetry. Photo-sensible offers insights into André Schmid’s estate held at the Musée Historique Lausanne, with many of his images published in this book for the first time ever. This window into the past is juxtaposed with works by contemporary photographic artists Léonore Baud and Olivier Jeannin, as well as graduates of the photography class at the École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL), which highlight the sensual power of André Schmid’s historic images. Text in French.