From Photographers to Exhibition: Switzerland Planning and Building Exhibition (1946-1949) and the Material Circulation of Photographs

Abstract

Switzerland Planning and Building Exhibition, an architecture exhibition almost entirely composed of photographs (more than 400), toured through Europe between 1946 and 1949. It was organised by the cultural organisation Pro Helvetia to contribute to strengthening the image of Switzerland in the post-war years abroad. This paper examines this exhibition and focuses on the modality of circulation of photographs from photographers to their display and discusses how the photographic material is appropriated by different actors (photographers, architects, members of the exhibition committee, and the institution in charge of the photographic reproduction). Thereby, this case study considers the architecture exhibition as a place for tracing photographs in a collective and dynamic process that goes beyond the relationship between the architect as a client and the commissioned photographer.