Welcome to Biel, ephemeral capital of Swiss photography

Noah Krattiger, School of Visual Arts Bern and Biel, Graphic design class 2nd year Noah Krattiger

Julian Charrière, Polygon Julian Charrière

Jean Revillard, Ondes Jean Revillard/Rezo.ch

Letizia Tedaldi, School of Visual Arts Berne and Biel, Graphic design class 2nd year letizia Tedaldi

Thomas Egli, Paradise Island Thomas Egli

Catherine Leutenegger, New Artificiality, 2016 Catherine Leutenegger Photography

Carlotta Schmeiser, School of Visual Arts Berne and Biel, Graphic design class 2nd year Carlotta Schmeiser

The city of Biel, known for being a center of the global watch industry, also is a cultural crossroads of national importance. For nearly a month every year, the largest bilingual city in the country welcomes a festival dedicated entirely to photography.

This content was published on May 24, 2017 - 13:43

I manage a multilingual team responsible for covering the Swiss Abroad, providing them with the information they need to participate in political life in Switzerland. After studying political science in Neuchâtel and Bern, I started out in multimedia journalism at SwissTXT and RTS. Since 2008, I've been working at SWI swissinfo.ch, where I've held various journalistic and management positions.

As a photo editor I am responsible for the editorial use of photography at SWI swissinfo.ch and our collaborations with photographers. When the opportunity arises, I take a camera and accompany one of our journalists. I trained as a photographer in Zürich and began working as a photojournalist in 1989. I was a founder of the Swiss photographers' agency Lookat Photos in 1990. A two-time World Press Award winner, I have also been awarded several Swiss national scholarships. My work has been widely exhibited and it is represented in various collections.

Thomas Kern & Samuel Jaberg

The Biel Festival of PhotographyExternal link, which runs from May 5th to 28th, is an opportunity to discover the heritage of this often unknown Swiss city – while also enjoying a bit of physical exercise. The 28 exhibitions presented at the 21st edition of the festival, three-quarters of which are exclusively Swiss or worldwide, are distributed in eight separate venues.

Among them are three unusual locations: the Farel House, a witness to the architecture of the late 1950s; a former abandoned industrial building; and the Working Station, a private gallery space.

This years’s festival focuses on the notion of what is extreme. The themes dealt with are multiple: the flow of images, the omnipresence of technology, and the excesses of a global society. It presents a sophisticated panorama of emerging photography from Switzerland and around the world to an informed or simply curious audience.

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