Seeing Zumthor--Images by Hans Danuser: Reflections on Architecture and Photography

Hans Danuser is among the foremost contemporary Swiss photographers. Peter Zumthor is an equally celebrated Swiss architect. Seeing Zumthor represents a unique collaboration of their distinguished artistic visions: Danuser s images of the buildings created by Zumthor are photographs that comment equally on the art of photography and the art of architecture.

More than twenty years ago, in a milestone event of twentieth-century architectural photography, Danuser photographed, at Zumthor s invitation, two buildings: the protective structure built for archaeological excavations in Chur and St. Benedict s Chapel in Sumvitg. When first shown in exhibition, those photos ignited a lively debate that has been revived with a recent exhibition of Danuser s photographs of Zumthor s most famous work, the spa at Therme Vals. Seeing Zumthor collects these three important series of Danuser s pictures and includes essays by leading art historians exploring the relationship between the two seemingly different disciplines or architecture and photography.

An extraordinary work, Seeing Zumthor will continue to provoke a captivating dialogue between art historians, photographers, and architects.