Co-curated with Martin Gasser

Photo: Rocco Casaluci

Jakob Tuggener (1904-88) was simultaneously photographer, filmmaker and painter. But above all he saw himself as an artist. Influenced by the German expressionist film of the 1920s, he developed a poetic artistic style that became a role model for younger photographers after the Second World War - such as Robert Frank, who later caused a furore with his book The Americans. The main themes Tuggener dealt with throughout his life were work in the factory, simple life in the country, and glamorous social occasions of better society, the balls in Grandhotels in Zurich and Sankt Moritz. Tuggener composed print-ready book maquettes, i.e. bound image sequences of over 100 original photographs, mostly full-page or double-page, for these and other themes such as railways, car races or Gothic cathedrals, but he never found suitable publishers. The only exception was his magnificent "Bildepos der Technik", published in 1943 under the title Fabrik (Factory), which today is regarded as a real milestone in the history of the photo book. It also established Tuggener's reputation as an outstanding photo artist and led to much acclaimed participation in exhibitions such as "Postwar European Photography" (1953) and "The Family of Man" (1955) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York or the "Ia mostra internazionale biennale di fotografia" in Venice (1957). We show here many photographs from this book, further industrial pictures, four of his films and then, in the form of a project, his great ball pictures.
MAST is delighted to present the photographic heavyweight Jakob Tuggener from Switzerland to the Italian public in detail. We would like to thank the Fotostiftung Schweiz and the Jakob Tuggener Stiftung for their excellent cooperation.
Curators: Martin Gasser and Urs Stahel

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator