Michael von Graffenried (born 1957) is a Swiss photographer living and working between Paris, Brooklyn NY and Switzerland. He started working as a

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

in 1978, travelling the world for numerous publications. Today he works on long-term projects using different kinds of media to showcase his artwork, such as open-air campaigns on public billboards and films. His work has appeared in numerous international magazines and newspapers, including ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'', ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'', '' Paris Match'', ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'', ''

GEO Geo- is a prefix derived from the Greek word ''γη'' or ''γαια'', meaning "earth", usually in the sense of "ground or land”. GEO or Geo may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''GEO'' (magazine), a popular scientific magazine ...

'', ''Stern'' and ''

El Pais EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

''. With his films,

videos Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

photos A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now created ...

, and also as a guest, he has contributed to many television programs in Europe. He has exhibited widely in Switzerland and France, as well as in New York City, Algiers, Hong Kong and Beirut.

Life and work

He first became known in Switzerland for work focused on his

hometown Hometown, HomeTown, or Home Town may refer to: *A hometown, the town where someone lives or the town that they come from, typically their place of birth. *In developing nations particularly: native place, village of origin in newly urbanized soci ...

, including the

Swiss Parliament The Federal Assembly (german: Bundesversammlung, french: Assemblée fédérale, it, Assemblea federale, rm, Assamblea federala), also known as the Swiss parliament (''Parlament'', ''Parlement'', ''Parlamento''), is Switzerland's federal leg ...

, where his pictures of members of parliament looking sleepy, or caught in unflattering poses, assured him a reputation for insolence. The American photography critic

Vicki Goldberg Vicki Goldberg is an American photography critic, author, and photo historian based in New Hampshire, United States. She has written books and articles on photography and History of photography, its social history. Biography Born in St. Louis, M ...

wrote about his use of humor in ''

'' and drew comparisons with

Robert Frank Robert Frank (November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019) was a Swiss photographer and documentary filmmaker, who became an American binational. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled ''The Americans'', earned Frank comparisons to a modern-da ...

and

René Burri René Burri (9 April 1933 – 20 October 2014) was a Swiss photographer. Burri was a member of Magnum Photos and photographed major political, historical and cultural events and key figures of the second half of the 20th century. He made portrai ...

. It was his work on

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, which made his reputation internationally. For ten years, he regularly traveled the country, which was plagued by

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, and took pictures with an old panoramic camera held at waist height, operating it without using the viewfinder. His panoramic work, which has become his signature, has been the subject of several books and an exhibition at La Villette in Paris in 1998, before being presented in Algiers in 2000. He also produced the movie War Without Images – Algeria, I Know That You Know, with the director Mohammed Soudani. The documentary film sees him go in search of Algerians he had photographed during the

. In 2002, the film was presented at the

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...

. Von Graffenried originally worked for the printed press, where he was able to have strong control over the use of his pictures. To justify the trust placed in him by his photographic subjects and to maintain his independence and integrity, he has always refused to join a news agency or publishing company. He then shifted to a more

conceptual Conceptual may refer to: Philosophy and Humanities *Concept *Conceptualism *Philosophical analysis (Conceptual analysis) *Theoretical definition (Conceptual definition) *Thinking about Consciousness (Conceptual dualism) *Pragmatism (Conceptual pr ...

approach to his photography, erecting large format, panoramic versions of his work on billboards in major Swiss cities: ''CocaineLove'' on (illegal) drugs, and ''Eye on Africa (Cameroon)''. The curator and interviewer Hans-Ulrich Obrist commented on Graffenried's method of working with the old panoramic

Widelux The Widelux is a fully mechanical swing-lens panoramic camera first developed in Japan in 1958, by Panon Camera Shoko. There are both 35mm and medium-format models. Instead of a shutter, the camera has a slit that exposes the film as the l ...

, saying that his body becomes the camera and that his photographs do not have an Inside or Outside anymore. The viewer is Immersed. Graffenried does not hesitate to use his fame to express his political views. He was an outspoken supporter of the "NO" vote during the Swiss minaret referendum, the popular initiative approved by a majority of voters on 29 November 2009. The

minaret ban The federal popular initiative "against the construction of minarets" was a successful popular initiative in Switzerland to prevent the construction of minarets on mosques. In a November 2009 referendum, a constitutional amendment banning the c ...

is now part of the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

. Between 2006 and 2021 he made a portrait of

New Bern New Bern, formerly called Newbern, is a city in Craven County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 29,524, which had risen to an estimated 29,994 as of 2019. It is the county seat of Craven County and t ...

, a little town in North Carolina, USA which was founded by his ancestor

Christoph von Graffenried Christoph von Graffenried, 1st Baron of Bernberg (15 November 1661 – 1743), from a Swiss patrician family, was the founder of New Bern, North Carolina, land speculator, and leader in the early Swiss and German colonization of America. Much of ...

. His series, ''Our Town'', named after the American play by

Thornton Wilder Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes — for the novel ''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' and for the plays ''Our Town'' and ''The Skin of Our Teeth'' — a ...

is a both a document of a community and a call for increased integration and understanding at a decisive moment in American history. In 2014, he joined the team who created sept.info, a Swiss online news site. Here, he instigated the publication of a weekly printed magazine, cut in the exact shape of an

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...

. This allowed readers to place the magazine inside their iPad, where they could then choose to either read their printed copy or the sept.info online content on screen. He was the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

of sept.info until 2015. Many of his photographer friends participated in this publishing experience.

Awards

*1989 World Press Photo award, Arts and Entertainment, Stories, 3rd prize, for his series Sowjet Artists in Moscow during the

Perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...

. *2006

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

Medal awarded by the Minister of Culture (France). *2010 Dr. Erich Salomon Award awarded by the German Society for Photography.

Documentary films

*2000 ''Algeria – War without images'' by Mohammed Soudani *2004 ''Michael von Graffenried – Photo Suisse'' (EN) by Andreas Hössli *2005 ''Cocainelove'' by mvg and Roland Lanz *2009 ''Shoreditch Stories'' by Peter Balzli *2009 ''Minaret in Bricklane London'' *2012 ''On the Edge'' by Mohammed Soudani *2014 mvgphoto Channel

Publications

*1989 ''Swiss image'', Bern : Benteli, *1991 ''Swiss people'', Le Mont-sur-Lausanne : J. Genoud, *1995 ''Sudan, a forgotten war'', Bern : Benteli, *1997 ''Naked in Paradise'', Stockport : Dewi Levis, *1998 ''Inside Algeria'', New York: Aperture, (Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 98-85810) *1998 ''Algérie, photographies d'une guerre sans images'', Paris : Hazan, *2005 ''The Eye of Switzerland : 15 years of Swiss Press Photo'', Wabern-Bern : Benteli, *2005 ''Cocaine Love'', Benteli, Wabern, *2009 ''Eye on Africa'', Basel, Schwabe Verlag, *2010 ''Outing'', Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Conversation avec Hans Ulrich Obrist à Londres *2014 ''Bierfest'', Göttingen, Steidl, *2016 ''Changing Rio'', Zurich, Offizin, *2021 ''Our Town'', Göttingen, Steidl,

Solo exhibitions

*1998 ''Algérie, photographies d'une guerre sans images'', Paris – Month of Photography, Pavillon Delouvrier, Parc de la Villette, Paris *1999 ''World Panorama'', Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland *2000 ''Algérie, photographies d'une guerre sans images'', National Library El Hamma, Algiers *2002 Helveticum 02,

Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (Neuchâtel) The musée d'art et d'histoire (Museum of Art and History) is a museum in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Among its exhibits are the Jaquet-Droz automata. The collections of paintings include works of Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Re ...

, Switzerland *2003

Museum of Fine Arts Bern The Museum of Fine Arts Bern (German: ''Kunstmuseum Bern''), established in 1879 in Bern, is the museum of fine arts of the Switzerland#Federal City, de facto capital of Switzerland. Its holdings run from the Middle Ages to the present. It houses ...

, Switzerland (Curated by Harald Szeemann) *2003 ''Michael von Graffenried – World Panorama'', Library of the city of Bordeaux, France *2005 ''Rosanna, Astrid, Peter and the others'', Swiss National Museum, Zurich *2007 ''Inside Cairo'', On the rooftop in

Downtown Cairo Downtown Cairo ( arz, وسط البلد '' "middle of town")'', has been the urban center of Cairo, Egypt, since the late 19th century, when the district was designed and built. History Downtown Cairo was designed by prestigious French archit ...

, photography installation, Egypt *2007 ''Our Town'', Kornhausforum Museum Bern, Switzerland *2009 ''Eye on Africa'',

Zentrum Paul Klee The Zentrum Paul Klee is a museum dedicated to the artist Paul Klee, located in Bern, Switzerland and designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. It features about 40 percent of Paul Klee's entire pictorial oeuvre. In 1997, Livia Klee-Meyer, P ...

, Bern, Switzerland *2010 ''Outing, Retrospective'', Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris *2012 ''Inside Cairo'', Parker's Box Gallery, Brooklyn NY *2012 ''On the Edge'' (on public billboards), Varanasi, India *2014 '' Bierfest'', Esther Wordehoff Gallery, Paris

Collections

Von Graffenried's photographs are held in the following permanent collections: *Swiss Foundation for Photography, Winterthur, Switzerland *

Musée de l'Élysée Musée de l'Élysée is a museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, entirely devoted to photography. It is a government-supported institution founded in 1985 by Charles-Henri Favrod. It was housed in an 18th-century mansion until October 2020.

, Lausanne, Switzerland *

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

, Paris *Pilara Foundation,

Pier 24 Photography Pier 24 Photography is a non-profit art museum located on the Port of San Francisco directly under the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The organization houses the permanent collection of the Pilara Foundation, which collects, preserves and exh ...

, San Francisco, USA: 1 print (as of 22 October 2021)

References

External links

* *
Von Graffenried talks about ''OurTown''
– Steidl video on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Graffenried, Michael von 1957 births Living people Swiss photographers

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...