500,000 MILES – around the world with F.C. Gundlach

Photobastei Zurich
September 6th - October 27th 2019

Opening: September 5, 2019, 6 p.m.

F.C. Gundlach is considered a grand master of fashion photography. In more than four decades of active work, he rose to become one of the most renowned fashion photographers of the 20th century. His timeless fashion photographs have become iconic and have shaped the visual memory of entire generations. Besides F.C. Gundlach's distinctive formal and visual language, a crucial part of his success was based on his early and extensive travels, which took him around the globe like no other fashion photographer of the German post-war era. F.C. Gundlach traveled 500,000 miles from location to location around the world.

The exhibition " 500,000 MILES – Around the World with F.C. Gundlach" showcases over 100 black-and-white and color photographs, offering a representative selection of the photographer's clear visual language and aesthetic approach. It provides insight into his cultural interests and the sometimes adventurous circumstances under which his images were created around the globe. On display are well-known iconic photographs as well as previously unseen images, presented as vintage prints and large-format new reproductions.

Light-footed and effortlessly stylish, his models still embody the spirit of boundless freedom. F.C. Gundlach's clients include not only the elegant magazine Film und Frau, but also major, high-circulation film and fashion magazines such as Brigitte , Stern , Quick , Twen , and Annabelle . As early as the beginning of the 1950s, the editorial of Film und Frau stated that the "talented young man from Stuttgart" would "continue to entertain readers with his vividly portrayed travel reports." Five years later, Deutsche Illustrierte announced, "Star photographer F.C. Gundlach reports from Paris."

The camera is F.C. Gundlach's constant companion. The major fashion capitals of Berlin, Paris, and New York are his second home. Alongside fashion photography, he creates impressive travel documentaries. Long before the flood of mass tourism, F.C. Gundlach visited the pyramids of Egypt, the temple complex of Angkor Wat, and Oscar Niemeyer's futuristic jungle city of Brasília. With great sensitivity, these famous monuments become part of his architecturally sophisticated compositions.

The theme of travel runs like a thread through F.C. Gundlach's life and work. At the age of ten, he received his first camera as a gift: an Agfa Box. He knew early on that he wanted to see the world. After training in Kassel, Gundlach launched his career as a photojournalist in Stuttgart. These roots would remain with him throughout his life in the form of his composition and reportage style. In 1950, he went to Paris for the first time, the dream destination for all young Europeans. There, he visited the glamorous fashion shows and developed his visual language for fashion photography. But Paris was just the beginning. From there, he traveled the world for fashion reportage. He went to New York by ocean liner and, shortly after, by the Super Constellation. A clever move secured him an exclusive contract with Lufthansa, enabling him to travel to the most remote corners of the earth. Egypt and the Near East are his destinations, immediately followed by Persia, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Central and South America, and the entire African continent...

With his productions around the world, F.C. Gundlach captures the spirit of the times. Besides his portraits of celebrities and up-and-coming talents in the world of fashion, F.C. Gundlach satisfies not only the thirst for glamour, but also the longing for the exotic and international. In his unmistakable visual style, he brings a fresh touch of cosmopolitanism into German living rooms.

F.C. Gundlach's constant travel meant that he often didn't know where he was when he woke up or where the next day would take him. But photography was his driving force, propelling him forward even after his time as an active photographer: whether as an entrepreneur, collector, curator, gallery owner, museum founder, or philanthropist. Stagnation and confinement remain two conditions he probably fears most.

An exhibition by the F.C. Gundlach Hamburg Foundation, curated by Natalja Aljasova and Jasmin Seck.

Photobastei Zurich
Sihlquai 125
8005 Zurich
photobastei.ch
Opening hours: Wed to Sat, 12 pm - 9 pm, Sun 12 pm - 6 pm
Admission to the 2nd floor: 12/8 CHF, admission to the 3rd floor free