About the Museum

Research-centred
The projects and topics that Fotomuseum Winterthur presents are intensively researched. Background information is compiled and the subject matter is looked at from different angles.

Critical
Photography is subjected to critical examination at Fotomuseum Winterthur. Research is conducted and critical scrutiny applied to individual works and to photography as a medium to examine the impact it has on people.

Discursive
Fotomuseum Winterthur puts images and content into context, reveals linkages and promotes discussion on the topic. The museum fosters image and media competences.

Interdisciplinary
Fotomuseum Winterthur looks at photography from a variety of angles, focusing on different disciplines. The team and the partners we work together with constitute a group with a range of expertise and different approaches.

Committed to media reflection
Fotomuseum Winterthur sheds light on the role that photography plays in our everyday lives and analyses how it influences us and where and how it operates.

Ethical and values-based
Fotomuseum Winterthur has a clear position, adopting a feminist (equality-oriented), anti-discriminatory, anti-racist stance. This applies to the museum’s curatorial and educational programme and characterises the team’s approach.

Fotomuseum Winterthur is working not only on programming (exhibitions, events, educational services, publications, etc.) but also on organisational development at various levels with a view to establishing a form of institutional practice that is sensitive to the issue of discrimination and geared to diversity and sustainability. For the sake of transparency and as a token of our commitment, we want to be open about the process of development we find ourselves in.

Further information

For over 30 years, Fotomuseum Winterthur has been a place that accompanies,  reflects on and foregrounds changes in photography. Its history is characterised by continuous development and openness to new social, technological, and artistic impulses.

THE BEGINNINGS: A TRIO ON THE RISE

The history of Fotomuseum Winterthur is inseparably linked to the desire for change. At the end of the 1980s, Walter Keller and George Reinhart realised that there was no cultural institution in the German-speaking part of Switzerland dedicated exclusively to photography. Inspired by an exhibition by Robert Frank at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne and strengthened by personal networks, the vision of creating a place for photography in Winterthur took shape. In collaboration with Urs Stahel, the first director of Fotomuseum Winterthur, the idea became reality.

FROM FACTORY BUILDING TO LIVELY CULTURAL SPACE

The search for suitable premises began. Various buildings were considered until the so-called ‘Kultursagi’, a former factory building, became the museum’s home. Built in 1877 as a rubber band weaving mill, the building had seen numerous uses – a paper goods factory and cooperative carpentry workshop – before being preserved as a cultural space by Andreas Reinhart, George Reinhart’s brother, in 1989. As early as 1991, the building signalled its new purpose with an exhibition by Richard Avedon. With the formation of a foundation and association in 1992, the foundation for Fotomuseum Winterthur were established, and it opened its doors to the public for the first time on 29 January 1993 with the exhibition Paul Graham – New Europe.

COLLECTING WITH AN OUTLOOK TO THE FUTURE

From the very beginning, the museum’s work was guided by a clear focus: the collection would include photographic works from the 1960s to the immediate present, a period in which the medium of photography underwent fundamental change. The first acquisitions were works by Robert Frank, followed by further works acquired from exhibitions. The museum emphasised that the collection should not only represent important positions, but should also remain closely linked to the museum’s contemporary exhibition programme. From 2003 onwards, this strategy was further developed under the collection curator Thomas Seelig. The works are not permanently on display, but are presented in changing formats. Fotomuseum was also one of the first institutions in Europe to make its collection available online. Worldwide access to the collection enabled transparency and international visibility.

Fotomuseum Winterthur sees its collection activities as a dynamic process. The selection of works is continually reflected upon and questioned – especially with regard to visibility, interpretive authority and the power of define. The collection not only reflect photographic positions, but also highlight social aspects such as inclusion and exclusion, participation and diversity. Through dedicated collection exhibitions and the online presentation of its collection, the museum creates space for an ongoing dialogue about the meaning and evolution of photography.

PEOPLE SHAPE AND CREATE

As with many cultural institutions, the development of Fotomuseum Winterthur is closely linked to the people who have contributed their ideas and passion.

From 1993 to 2015, Urs Stahel led the institution and positioned it internationally as a museum dedicated to photography.

Visitors from all over Switzerland travelled to Winterthur for solo exhibitions by photographers such as Walker Evans, Nan Goldin and André Kertész, as well as thematic projects such as Im Rausch der Dinge (In the Rush of Things) and Concrete. Fotomuseum Winterthur gained international renown through its numerous, ambitious publications. Urs Stahel profoundly shaped the museum history of photography, the echoes of which can still be felt today.

Following this ground-breaking first chapter, the co-directorship of Duncan Forbes and Thomas Seelig expanded the institution into the digital space between 2015 and 2017. With SITUATIONS, a format created through the collaboration of co-directors Forbes and Seelig, Marco De Mutiis (one of first Europe ’s first digital curators), Daniela Janser (research assistant) and later Doris Gassert (research curator) – the museum succeeded in conducting a pioneering experiment that tracked ans analysed contemporary photographic developments and expanded the idea of the exhibition beyond the physical context into a digital presence.

In 2018, Nadine Wietlisbach was appointed director and took over overall management. Remo Longhi has been managing director since the organisational structure was adjusted in the same year. Together with an interdisciplinary team, they have been continually developing the programme and the institution, navigating the tension between developments in photographic and social questions.