Curated by Mara Folini Ceccarelli and Monica Bohm-Duchen

The Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna in Ascona, within the frame­work of projects aimed at promoting its collections and the work of artists connected to Ascona, is delighted to be hosting the first retrospective exhibition in Switzerland dedicated to the interna­tionally renowned German-born British photographer Dorothy Bohm (1924–2023).

Through a selection of approximately 90 artworks, the exhibition traces the main stages of her long career, with a focus on the black and white work she produced during her stays in Ascona from 1947 until the late 1950s. Most of these artworks have never been seen in public before.

Ascona would prove a key turning point in her transition from studio-based portraiture to plein air photography, which arose primarily from her exposure to the natural beauty of Lake Maggiore, but also from her engagement with Ascona’s cultural and human landscape, including the lega­cy of Monte Verità, the presence of anti-fascist artists and intellectuals, and a farming community on the verge of disappearing.

Bohm’s 1955 statement «I Saw Daylight» bears witness not only to a visual discovery but also to the origin of an inner confidence to express her deeply humanist and distinctive vision, capable of engaging in dialogue with the great European photographers of the post-war period.

Her poetic, empathetic and sometimes humorous images consistently capture authentic moments of ordi­nary life. Far removed from a purely photojournalistic approach, her photography draws on moments of stillness, subtle gestures and silent relationships between bodies and space – an ethic of the gaze founded on a profound awareness of the fragility of human existence and the unique ability of the photograph to cap­ture in an instant fleeting moments, thereby making the «transience of life less painful».

Thus, in Ascona, a visual approach was born that would run through her entire body of work up to the 1980s. Bohm photographs artists and ordinary people, farmers, children and passers-by, as well as landscapes and everyday objects. She establishes no hierarchies: a human figure, a tree, a tricycle or a demijohn all possess the same intense presence. In her landscapes, light does not merely describe a place but reveals its emotional dimension; in people, she captures feelings, hopes and vulnerabilities; in objects, she recognises a silent memory.

The transition from black and white to colour (via the Polaroid me­dium) in the 1980s did not interrupt this journey but opened it up to new formal possibilities. Reality becomes more allusive, ironic and ambiguous; shapes and colours acquire an autonomy that leads towards an increasingly suggestive yet formally structured visual poetry. Often centred on details of urban walls, reflections and posters, these images engage in a dialogue with abstract art and the neo-avant-garde movements.

In an age marked by visual acceleration and the overproduction of images, Dorothy Bohm’s photography takes on a particular resonance. Its thoughtfulness, its ability to linger in the memory, offers an alternative model of photographic practice, founded on attentiveness and responsibility. It is in this ethical, as well as aesthetic, quality that her most enduring contribution to the history of photography lies.

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Kuratiert von Mara Folini Ceccarelli und Monica Bohm-Duchen

„Solange ich lebe, werde ich Fotografin sein. Ich werde niemals in Ruhestand gehen“ erklärte Dorothy Bohm (1924–2023), die britische Fotografin deutsch-jüdischer Herkunft. Dorothy Bohm, die vor allem für ihre zutiefst menschlichen und gekonnt komponierten Straßenfotografien in Schwarz-Weiß bekannt ist, hielt sich 1947 zum ersten Mal in Ascona auf und traf dort auf antifaschistische Künstler, die ihr den entscheidenden Anstoß gaben, die Porträtfotografie aufzugeben und sich der Arbeit außerhalb des Studios zu widmen.

Ihre poetischen Bilder fangen authentische Momente des Lebens ein und stehen im Dialog mit dem Werk von Henri Cartier-Bresson, wobei sie ihren Blick auf den Alltag und den sozialen Wandel richtet, mit besonderem Augenmerk auf den weiblichen Kosmos. 1971 gehörte sie zu den Gründern der Photographers' Gallery in London, wo sie bis 1986 als stellvertretende Direktorin tätig war. Anfang der 1980er Jahre entdeckte sie das Medium Polaroid, das es ihr ermöglichte, „das gewisse Etwas, das Magische“ festzuhalten, und widmete sich anschließend der künstlerischen Farbfotografie. Ihre Werke – oft mit Fokus auf Details von Stadtmauern, Spiegelungen und Plakaten – erinnern manchmal an abstrakte Kunst und die Neoavantgarde.

Eine Auswahl von etwa 90 Werken zeichnet die wesentlichen Phasen ihres langen Werdegangs nach – von Studio-Porträts über Schwarz-Weiß-Fotografie im Freien bis hin zu Polaroid- und Farbfotografien.

Plakat