The distinctive, often avant-garde images of Swiss photographer René Groebli have helped shape photographic vision and design on an international level.
Although Groebli 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 his personality and creativity. He therefore decided to turn to his original interest, film. Nevertheless, two years later he achieved his breakthrough with his photo essay Rail Magic, a series of 14 photographs conceived as a portfolio that recreates a journey on a steam train. In total contrast to the objectivity in which most post-war Swiss photography remained, Rail Magic was a brilliant announcement of Subjective Photography, which radically changed the medium in the early 1950s. The publication catapulted the 22-year-old Groebl immediately into the ranks of the most important representatives of the Swiss photographic scene and is today one of the milestones in the international history of the photo book. From 1946, Groebli completed an apprenticeship as a documentary cameraman, but continued to work intensively in photography. In 1951, he 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, Groebli 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, the essay seems like an atmospheric counterpart to the world of the steam locomotive. 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, found its way into Edward Steichen’s groundbreaking exhibition The Family of Man at 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.