ERWIN STAEHELI

PASSAGE

6. 11. – 4. 12. 2010

„Passage“ may refer to a long room or hall leading to other rooms. The setting of the photographs are almost empty rooms and landscapes in France, Switzerland and Czech Republic. Some are taken on historical sites, others in urban areas. Watching the pictures one might become contemplative. What’s the meaning of time and history? What am I doing here? There’s always an exit on the pictures following the source of the light. It’s not a really safe exit. But it makes you move on.
Erwin Staeheli was born 1955 in Basel, Switzerland. He studied art in Basel. After a period of painting he changed to photography. From 1980 to1994 he worked as a civil engineer, planning and supervising roadwork, concrete- and steel constructions and water supply. Mountaineering, trekking, travelling. Since 1995 he has worked as an artist. He lives four months out of the year in Australia where he digs for sapphires. Physical work is essential for his artwork. That’s one of the reasons he prefers to use medium and large format cameras and why he prints on fibre-based papers in his own laboratory. Eleven exhibitions of his photographs have been held in Switzerland, France, Czech Republic, Japan and USA. Another series of his photography has been published in the book “exposé”, featuring pictures of the Jura mountain range.