We may not be medical professionals, but we do reserve the right to prescribe the following for anyone with excessive screen time to combat their digital addiction: A visit to the photo basel international art fair. For well over a decade, the Swiss art photography fair has been showing just how much creative talent presses the shutter button every day. And to stay with the medical side of things: There are numerous studies that prove that looking at art has a positive influence on the nervous system and brain activity. You can put this to the test in the next few pages, where we give you a preview of the exhibition. And if that’s not stress-reducing enough, then a visit to Basel between June 16 and 21 is a must.
LOTTE EKKEL, NEWHOUSE GALLERY The Dutch photographer taught herself photography. While others set up complicated lighting effects, she relies entirely on natural light. She likes spaces where time seems to stand still and then creates abstract compositions that are reminiscent of paintings.
CARLO MOLLINO, GALLERIA DAVIDE DI MAGGIO Carlo Mollino has lived many lives: he was an architect, designer and later also a photographer who liked to take erotic Polaroids. His works are still astonishingly relevant today. Although Mollino (1905 – 1973) was already highly regarded during his lifetime, it was only years after his death that people realized what a genius they were actually dealing with.
PHILIPP GIEGEL, GALERIE ESTHER WOERDEHOFF Tourism can also be staged aesthetically: For over four decades, Zurich photographer Philipp Giegel has shaped the image of tourist Switzerland at home and abroad with his black and white photographs. He has received numerous awards for his tourist posters. Signed prints by the photographer will be on display at photo basel.
CIRIL JAZBEC, GALERIJA FOTOGRAFIJA As a documentary photographer, Ciril Jazbec captures nature – and the man-made changes it has to endure. He has been working as a freelance photographer for National Geographic Magazine since 2014. His unique eye has already earned him several awards, including the Leica Oskar Barnack Award and the Magnum 30 under 30.
STEFANIE SEUFERT, GALERIE SPRINGER BERLIN For her ongoing series “Others”, Stefanie Seufert brings a portable studio for small feathered guests into the city, to large areas, near shopping centers and cinemas. And then they appear, the hungry coal tits and blue tits, and pose in front of the hidden camera.
BORIS GABERŠČIK, GALERIJA FOTOGRAFIJA The Slovenian doesn’t need much to create something impressive: A few rolls of film for analog photos and objects that he can arrange to create a beautiful still life. Thanks to light, composition and the selection of objects, new layers and new meanings are constantly being created.DOLORÈS MARAT, BUCHKUNST BERLIN A woman slowly merging with a crocodile – or vice versa? The scene itself is already surreal, but Dolorès Marat’s photography adds to it. With blurred edges, graininess and a dreamy softness.
JOSÉ CHAMBEL, PERVE GALERIA He expresses himself in a documentary language: José Chambel’s photographs focus on the cultural heritage of Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Cape Verde. In 2020, he co-founded Manga-Manga, an organization dedicated to documenting, researching and promoting the culture of São Tomé and Príncipe.
NERINA TOCI, GALLERIA DAVIDE DI MAGGIO Nerina Toci’s characteristic? Transforming something into something else via photography. With her pictures, she brings bodies into natural environments, creating abstract compositions. Her view is anything but conventional. This is how a person gets caught between a chair and becomes a sculpture.
LISETTA CARMI, GALLERIA DAVIDE DI MAGGIO Fifty years after the publication of “I travestiti” (Rome, Essedi, 1972) and just a few months after Lisetta Carmi’s death, photo basel is showing a selection of previously unpublished color photographs from one of the most impressive and important reportages in the history of photography, which was rediscovered in Carmi’s archive in 2017.
TILYEN MUCIK, GALERIJA FOTOGRAFIJA In 2022, the Slovenian completed her Master’s degree in photography at the Academy of Visual Art and Design in Ljubljana. Plants are the stars and main protagonists of her works. Tilyen’s book “Plant-Based” was one of the photo book winners at the Belfast Photo Festival.
CORINA GERTZ, IRA STEHMANN FINE ART Fashion and photography have always been closely intertwined. Corina Gertz studied fashion design, but shifted her focus to photography in 2001. At the center of her work is clothing as a carrier of cultural identity and collective memory. Faces and individual body features take a back seat in her portraits.
You can find all information about photo basel here.
