The distinctive, often avant-garde images of Swiss photographer René Groebli have helped shape photographic vision and design on an international level.
Although Groebli initially had a greater interest in film, he began an apprenticeship as a photographer in Zurich in 1943. In 1944-45, he attended the photography class of Hans Finsler at the then Zurich Kunstgewerbeschule, whose emphasis on the static contradicted Groebli's personality and creativity. He therefore decided to turn to his original interest, film. From 1946, he completed an apprenticeship as a documentary cameraman, but continued to work intensively in photography and kept experimening with capturing movement in single photographs.
In 1949, at the young age of 22, he published the photographic essay Rail Magic (Magie der Schiene) with only 14 photos that recreate a journey on a steam train on its way from Paris to Basel; with a lot of smoke, motion blur and grain. Clearly ahead of its time, the publication with its new, cinematographic approach to photography did not meet with much interest by the broader public. Only few conoisseurs recognised it as the seminal work it is seen as today, a series uniting “all the ingredients of a photographic classic” (Guido Magnaguagno). In total contrast to the cool, clean-cut objectivity which most Swiss post-war photography maintained, Rail Magic was a brilliant announcement of Subjective Photography, which would go on to radically change the medium in the early 1950s. Today, Rail Magic is seen as one of the milestones in the international history of the photo book.
In 1951, Groebli married Rita Dürmüller, who supported him artistically throughout his life. In 1951-53, he worked as a photo reporter for the Black Star agency in London. From 1953, he focused on color photography and opened his own studio. He perfected the dye-transfer process and was named “Master of Color” by U.S. Color Annual in 1957. In 1954, he once again succeeded in attracting the attention of the photographic scene to his artistic work with the photo essay The Eye of Love. Taken during a belated honeymoon, 25 pictures show his young wife in intimate moments in simple French hotels, a playful poem in pictures. Inspired by the moods in films of French poetic realism and designed in collaboration with Werner Zryd, the publication is now considered a milestone in the history of photography books. It is hardly surprising that one of the photographs, The Sitting Nude, was bought by Edward Steichen for the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Even in the context of industry and advertising, Groebli’s color photography (1953-1980) left factual representation far behind with its consistently placed blur, movement, energy and colourful atmosphere at the centre. He remained faithful to this type of photography until the end of the 1970s, working with color alienation, crossfading, montage and pushing the dye transfer process to its limits, thus doing pioneering artistic work. In 1977, René Groebli rediscovered the creative potential of black-and-white photography. Working outside the constraints of commissioned projects, he began photographing spontaneously and without a predefined purpose, producing images in New York, Ireland, and the South of France, among other places. This personal exploration marked a shift away from his commercial practice. To this day, Groebli continues to work tirelessly on his image archive, which has been compiled over the course of more than 70 years. For decades, his work has been exhibited widely and internationally in shows, museums and fairs and is part of important collections such as the ones of the MoMa (Museum of Modern Art, new York) and the MEP (Maison Européenne de la photographie, Paris). During his commercial career, he had created campaigns for international clients, developed advertising concepts, and produced company brochures – contributing significantly to the evolution of color photography.