Schuh Gotthard

Swiss. Born in 1897, died in 1969

"Gotthard Schuh started out as a press photographer, but soon realised that he was not cut out for the day-to-day business of photography. He therefore decided to devote himself to projects that were to become books and worked as the photographic editor of Zurich's most important weekly newspaper. It was here that he published the first images of the young Robert Frank, to whom he remained close throughout his life.
A long journey took him to Asia, to Bali, Java and Sumatra, a journey of love, a discovery of wonder based on an incredible closeness to the people, without any fascination for exoticism, which he was able to transcribe in Iles des Dieux, a sumptuous album that was a great success.

[...] His Child Playing Marbles in Java, 1938, was shown around the world. It was included in the great exhibition The Family of Man organised by Edward Steichen in 1955 and, of course, in the retrospective he organised in 1967, two years before his death, which is the first example of prints laminated on aluminium to be displayed as objects.

Christian Caujolle, Agence VU' Galerie, Photo Poche n°107, Actes Sud, 2006