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Background information on 'Unseen Colour'
Werner BISCHOF (1916-1954) is best known for his impressive black-and-white photographs. Most of them were taken during his assignments as a reporter in post-war Europe and during the Indochina War 1946-1954, as well as during his travels in the Far East and South America, where he died in an accident. Less well known, on the other hand, are his color photographs, which he created in the first years after completing his education at the Zurich School of Applied Arts - on the one hand in his studio for fashion and advertising photography, but also reportages of scenes in war-torn Europe. He realized the photos on behalf of the Zurich publishing house Conzett & Huber, which provided him with a Devin Tri-Color camera for this purpose, which imaged each shot on three glass plates equipped with color filters.
Content
The photo volume 'Unseen Colour' contains around two hundred images of color negatives from the estate of Werner BISCHOF, which have been restored and reprocessed for the first time. The richly illustrated volume is fascinating not only from a photo-historical point of view: these early color photographs already reveal the sensitive aesthetic of the later Magnum photographer, which influenced his entire oeuvre. The illustrations are complemented by texts by Clara Bouveresse, French photography historian, Peter Pfrunder, director of the Fotostiftung Schweiz in Winterthur, and Luc Debraine, director of the Swiss Camera Museum in Vevey." (slightly adapted publisher's text, © Scheidegger & Spiess, 2023)