Color Work

René Groebli started experimenting with vibrant color at a time when color photography was still a novelty, decried as cheap and dismissed as inferior to black-and-white photography by some of the great photographers of the era (such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank). In the 1940s and 1950s, black-and-white images still dominated magazines. Groebli, however, boldly applied his color experimentation to commercial work and portraits. He experimented with innovative, manual techniques in the darkroom, using colored lighting and filters to manipulate the mood and color palette of his images, which allowed him to create striking visual effects; The resulting images look as if they had been generated by a computer. This may well explain why many of his visual inventions remain disconcerting, disturbing and incomprehensible: they are situated, both technically and aesthetically, between the avant-garde of new photography in the Bauhaus era and the avant-garde of computer-generated visions in our contemporary, post-modern world.
Seismograph of an Era – René Groebli and Color

René Groebli’s contribution to color photography, his exceptionally successful career in advertising and design and his experimental energy as an autonomous maker obviously did not take place in a vacuum. As much as he influenced photographic design in the 1960s and 70s, he, in turn, took inspiration from international developments in Op Art and Pop Art, Action Painting and Color Field Painting to rethink the role of color. As Richard Paul Lohse puts it in an essay on the influence of modern art and contemporary graphic art: “The pioneer may not be aware of the expressive impact, the philosophical implications and significance of his work, but he is clearly the instrument and seismograph of an era and a life situation.” The fashionable emergence of psychedelic drugs and the debate about heightened states of consciousness is certainly a factor in evaluating Groebli’s vividly colored, solarized portraits. Ultimately, his work was no longer about representing external reality but about capturing complex relations and phenomena. And we mustn’t forget the Surrealism of the 1920s. It, too, is a tradition that cannot be ignored although René Groebli did have a more sophisticated technology on which to rely in adapting color to contemporary fashions and changes in everyday life.

He staged, assembled, collaged everything he did – with only analogue means at his disposal. He sourced the avant-garde of the 1920s, applying their cornucopia of ideas to his chromatic universe without having recourse to digital technology. The darkroom was his laboratory. What came out of it now looks as if it had been generated by a computer. This may well explain why many of his visual inventions remain disconcerting, disturbing and incomprehensible: they are situated, both technically and aesthetically, between the avant-garde of new photography in the Bauhaus era and the avant-garde of computer-generated visions in our contemporary, post-modern world. Once again, René Groebli proves to be the missing link between eras, times and traditions. What’s more, this idiosyncratic designer couldn’t care less about isms and has always charted a path of his own.

Excerpt from an essay by Hans-Michael Koetzle, “Seismograph einer Epoche – Zur Farbfotografie des Schweizers René Groebli,”in: René Groebli – Color Work, Zurich (Sturm & Drang Publishers) 2017.
COLOR WANTED
René Groebli about Colour Photography
"‘Find your own colour wheel!’ That was the challenge Johannes Itten set us students at the Zurich School of Applied Arts, and it was what first inspired me to explore colour. I played around with brushes and paint and discovered my favourite colours: red, green and purple. These turned out to be the primary colours in my colour wheel. At first, this had no impact on my work as a photographer.

In the 1940s and early 1950s, colour photography was still relatively uncommon in Europe. Magazines still published photo reports in black and white. The first colour pages were reserved for paid advertisements. Accordingly, only a few advertising agencies occasionally requested colour photography. I was able to capture these perfectly with my Rolleiflex (in 6 x 6 cm format) between 1949 and 1953.

To enhance the mood of certain motifs or to ‘enchant’ factory buildings, I began mounting coloured celluloid sheets in front of the lamps. […]. With coloured lighting, I was able to fulfil my desire to use colours according to my colour wheel whenever possible. I could enhance colours, colour image elements, use complementary colours, etc. These were very welcome and completely new possibilities for image design!"
PUBLICATIONS – ORDER ONLINE