TPS and ETH Zurich Collaborative Exhibit September 8 thru October 15

 

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An adult male lion, C-Boy, feasts on a zebra. Photo By Michael Nichols

With pictures full of magic, the city of Zurich turns into a gallery. We are deeply convinced that it is our duty to continuously deal with the future of our existence and to seek concepts for our interaction with nature and the way we all live together.

With the awareness of the importance of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations, the idea of open your eyes was developed by a team with many years of exhibition experience and top-class expertise in photojournalism and photo art. A concept for a festival that invites us to reflect on the world we live in.

The agenda of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals was adopted by all 193 member states of the United Nations in September 2015 and provides a reference framework for peaceful and just coexistence in a global society.

The work on display is researched information, journalistic enlightenment and artistic expression. However, these photographs are not to be understood as illustrations of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, but as comments and annotations in the sense of Cornell Capa’s “Concerned Photographer”. The Hungarian-American photographer and Magnum founder Capa chose this expression to describe works that go beyond documenting events and show them with a humanitarian impulse.

This school of thought is also known as a concept in the context of science: the term “Concerned Scientist” is used to describe the use of rigorous, independent science

to solve our planet’s most urgent problems.

Consequently, world-class science meets world-class photography – in each exhibition.

In collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), scientific texts and accompanying lectures in the context of the pictorial narratives highlight background knowledge and potential for independent action.

The result is a unique exhibition format in the alleys, gardens and plazas of Zurich, created jointly by art and science. Pleas for peace, tolerance and togetherness borne by a humanist spirit. The aesthetic magic of the visual narratives transforms Zurich into a city of images. The public space becomes a stage set for a Gesamtkunstwerk that affects us all.

Open your eyes also means pointing very clearly to the transformation of our world. In the design and implementation of the goals, the importance of people as the central force of sustainable development is emphasised – in the sense of people, earth and welfare.

Open your eyes promotes harmonious coexistence and a peaceful open attitude towards each other, a mindful lifestyle and a just economic model. In terms of con- tent, this means questioning with a critical eye, but also visualising the successes of our civilisation. We want to celebrate successful life as the matrix of our existence, because: without peace, everything is nothing. To avoid what photographer Nick Brandt fears will happen – ecocide. “This is the murder of our home, of planet Earth – by us humans.”

The themes chosen want to celebrate life, peace and prosperity for people and the planet – today and in the future.

The open your eyes photo festival is dedicated to all people.

Hans-Rudolf Strasser

Lois Lammerhuber

About the author

Randy Olson
Randy Olson is a photographer in the social-documentary tradition. He often works with his wife, Melissa Farlow, and their assignments have taken them to over 50 countries in the past 30 years. Although they are published in LIFE, GEO, Smithsonian and other magazines, they have primarily photographed projects for the National Geographic Society. They work individually, but have also co-produced National Geographic magazine stories on northern California, American National Parks, and the Alps. They photographed the southern United States for a book by Collins Publishing, and have collaborated on over 70 books by various publishers. After teaching at the University of Missouri, they have been consistent contributors as faculty to the Missouri Photo Workshop created by the MU professor who coined the term “photojournalism.”

While working as a newspaper photographer, Olson received an Alfred Eisenstadt award for Magazine Photography and an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship to support a seven-year project documenting a family with AIDS, and a first place Robert F. Kennedy Award for a story on problems with Section 8 housing. He was also awarded the Nikon Sabbatical grant and a grant from the National Archives to save the Pictures of the Year collection.

Reaching almost a million on social media, most of his work centers around resource extraction and how that affects indigenous communities or pristine ecosystems. Randy’s 30+ National Geographic magazine projects have taken him to almost every continent. The National Geographic Society published a book of his work in a Masters of Photography series. Olson was the Magazine Photographer of the Year in the Pictures of the Year International (POYi) competition, and was also awarded POYi’s Newspaper Photographer of the Year—one of only two photographers to win in both media in the largest photojournalism contest operating continuously since World War II. More recently, Randy is the recipient of the 2017 Siena International Photo Awards (SIPA) Photographer of the Year, and the 2021 Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (HIPA) International Photography Appreciation Award. SIPA and HIPA—only one consonant apart—but represent different parts of the world honoring his photography and volunteer work.

In 2011, Randy founded The Photo Society (thephotosociety.org) to provide support for, and exposure to members as the economics of print dwindles. The National Geographic photographers elected Randy to represent them on the Photographers Advisory Board (PAB) – a group that represents the photographers in contract negotiations with National Geographic. During his tenure, the PAB successfully rebuffed National Geographic’s attempt to take the photographer’s copyright away from them and The Photo Society was born as a result of the increasing need for National Geographic photographers to stand together.

When National Geographic Image Collection (NGIC) closed the agency and their archive to the outside world, making many of their most-published photographers invisible, he began resurrecting the NGIC archive within the auspices of The Photo Society. The Photo Society archive is a 501c3, funded by donations.
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