Comments on: Idealizing Switzerland

By: Liriana

Liriana — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:50:05 +0000

I’m Swiss and it’s interesting for me to read about Switzerland here on this blog. And I have to say I was a little confused as well at first, but I guess ketchup is right about the meaning of these pictures. For all of you who would like to look at some pictures of Switzerland without cows and all the other touristy clichés, two photographers traveled trough this country for three years (no idea what they were doing for so long, Switzerland is tiny..). But they were trying to look at the landscape and the people in a different way (whatever that means). And although the pictures are all posed, they still provide a way better insight into what Switzerland (also) is. (since stereotypes usually aren’t completely wrong, their just not the whole story.. not at all, in this case)

http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/kultur/kunst/Ein-ungewohnter-Blick-auf-die-Schweiz/story/23337703

By: Hans Bakker

Hans Bakker — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:52:42 +0000

Doug Harper is a great photographer and a great guy. He won an award with the North Central Sociological Association for one of his books of photographs (and text). It was a great pleasure to meet him then so I am very glad to see his work posted here.

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:45:50 +0000

Harper writes, “Speaking from the American side of this conversation, I can attest to the allure of the Swiss myths and the more interesting sociological reality that has gradually revealed itself. For example, the myth of landscape presents mountains extending as a blanket of purity from one’s imagination to faraway borders. But the Swiss landscape is actually quite small, crisscrossed with electrical lines, and etched with startling towers. A tiny percentage of the Swiss actually live in the mountains, but the second homes of wealthy Germans are increasingly common in that landscape. Fertile valleys near the major cities have been transformed to suburban sprawl that makes even Americans wince”.

He adds later, “Most interesting are the tensions between landscape and development; between order and disorder, between straight lines and curves. Our photographs collectively explore some of these tensions”.

Unfortunately, I don’t really see those tensions revealed in the ten posted photographs. Perhaps his point would have been more powerful if Harper and Steiger contrasted photos of Switzerland as “everyone’s idealized landscape” with photos of “the more interesting sociological reality” of Switzerland.

By: Kat

Kat — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:22:20 +0000

This is a funny coincidence for me: I yesterday spoke to an Indian woman about where in Europe she’d want to travel. She replied without hesitating a second: “Switzerland, for its natural beauty. I’ve seen it in Bollywood films.”

By: bitte

bitte — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 05:38:48 +0000

i agree with ketchup… i don’t know what idealized and romanticized vision americans have of switzerland… of course there’s an urban side to it as well. and living without electricity and running water for four months might seem like a super huge shock to some people (why would anybody choose to live like that?!), but it’s alsso some kind of adventure, or something spiritual, or just for people who love nature and cows.

i thought the text that accompanied the photos spoke a much clearer language! i didn’t see any of the “rich germans with second homes in switzerland” in the pictures.

By: bitte

bitte — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 05:38:23 +0000

i thought the text that accompanied the photos spoke a much clearer language! i didn’s see any of the “rich germans with second homes in switzerland” in the pictures.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:54:29 +0000

er, forgot to proofread my last post.

It’s more the point of the post to say people use images–-like the ones shown–-to construct the idealized Switzerland and create the perception that Switzerland itself actually is like that. It’s more about bringing up the power the photos shown have in shaping others’ perspectives than to make a big comment on Switzerland itself.

Hope that’s more clear.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:51:12 +0000

It’s more the point of the post to say people use images–like the ones shown–to construct the idealized Switzerland to create the perception that Switzerland itself actually is like that. It’s more about the power the photos shown can be used in shaping others’ perspectives than to make a big comment on Switzerland itself.

By: Ketchup

Ketchup — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:23:45 +0000

I didn’t understand a thing about these pictures. When I read “deconstruction of idealized Switzerland” I thought we would see pictures of Swiss battered women, anti-foreigner Swiss racists, the Swiss drug addicts or homeless, not to mention (probably) the most freaking expensive MacDondalds on the planet (in Geneva). Instead there were cows and mountains and farms and houses.