Artist Talk: Nadine Wietlisbach in Conversation with Carolyn Cole and Christine Spengler
The American photographer Carolyn Cole has worked as a photojournalist in the Kosovo War, Afghanistan, Liberia and Iraq and has been working for the Los Angeles Times since 1994. Her colour photographs, which are still used today in both print and online media reveal a contemporary approach to war photography that is a reflection as much as anything of technical changes within the profession. Christine Spengler, who was born in Alsace, took her first photographs of an armed conflict in Chad. Later, in the 1970s, she began documenting a range of conflicts and crises in different parts of the world, including Vietnam as well as Cambodia, Iran, Western Sahara and Lebanon. A particular focus of her photographs are the local women and children and the lives they lead behind the front lines. In conversation with Nadine Wietlisbach, director of Fotomuseum Winterthur, the photographers provide insights into their work.
The event takes place in English.
Admission: CHF 5 (plus admission to the exhibition)
For members: free admission
The exhibition Women War Photographers – From Lee Miller to Anja Niedringhaus is devoted to photojournalistic coverage of international wars and conflicts. On display are some 140 images shot between 1936 and 2011 by a number of women photojournalists and documentary photographers: Carolyn Cole (*1961), Françoise Demulder (1947–2008), Catherine Leroy (1944–2006), Susan Meiselas (*1948), Lee Miller (1907–1977), Anja Niedringhaus (1965–2014), Christine Spengler (*1945) and Gerda Taro (1910–1937). Their pictures provide a fragmentary insight into the complex reality of war, taking in a range of military theatres from the Spanish Civil War, World War II and the Vietnam War to more recent international conflicts in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
Image: Carolyn Cole, An image of Saddam Hussein, riddled with bullet holes, is painted over by Salem Yuel. Symbols of the leader disappeared quickly throughout Baghdad soon after US troops arrived in the city and took control, Baghdad, Iraq, April 2003. © Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times