PhotoSCHWEIZ 2026

“SCHWEIZ” is German for Switzerland and “Photo” is photography in many languages. So it is – next February when PhotoSCHWEIZ will be holding its 2026 major event. From its website (https://www.photo-schweiz.ch/en/information), “PhotoSCHWEIZ is the largest and most prestigious photography exhibition in Switzerland and is regarded as one of the most important meeting places for the Swiss photography scene. Every year since 2005, around 250 established and up-and-coming photographers present their work to a wide audience – from professional image series to experimental concepts.” I may add, it is also one of the more important photography events in Europe, featuring national and international photographers and attracting over 25,000 visitors to its offerings.

From their website, “The exhibition offers a unique insight into the diversity and creativity of contemporary photography and brings together people from a wide range of fields: Photography enthusiasts, art lovers, experts, media representatives and curious people of all ages. In addition to the exhibition, photoSCHWEIZ offers a varied supporting program with exciting lectures, guided tours, workshops and discussions with renowned personalities from the world of photography. Whether professional, amateur or simply interested – a visit is worthwhile for everyone who loves photography.”

The team of organizers/curators is an impressive one, experienced people with fascinating international backgrounds (Figure 1; also, you can learn more about them here: https://www.photo-schweiz.ch/en/kurations-team).

There is a Photo Forum, as stated on the website: “……. nationally and internationally renowned photographers give an insight into their current work and talk about their work. The lectures within the photoFORUM are always special highlights of photoSCHWEIZ.

Here is just a small excerpt of the previous speakers:  International: Albert Watson, Anton Corbijn, Brigitte Lacombe, Christopher Morris, Greg Gorman, Hans Strand, Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri, James Nachtwey, Jürgen Teller, Max Vadakul, Peter Lindbergh, Roger Ballen,  Steve McCurry and many more.  National: Andri Pol, Arthur Honegger, Christian Bobst, Lukas Maeder, Marco Grob, Nora Nussbaumer, Patrick Rohr, René Burri, Röbi Bösch and many more.”

The way the photographs are exhibited is unusual and has received critical acclaim from the exhibitors. Rather than hanging the photos on walls of booths erected for the event, they are displayed on cubes that sit on the floor (Figure 2). It looks like a practical arrangement for handling large numbers of people trying to see the same works, and most likely much less expensive to assemble than walled booths. I’m looking forward to seeing how this works.

It’s being held in Zurich’s main congress hall (Kongresshaus Zurich), which itself is an impressive facility with all the necessary amenities.

I’ve been watching this event from afar for some time now, but much as I do like the City of Zurich (see below), travel to Europe in the middle of winter didn’t attract me (I stopped skiing in my 20s) until I recently came across their call for expressions of interest to be a presenter at their PhotoSchool (https://www.photo-schweiz.ch/en/photoschool-2026), operating as part of the exhibition (Figure 4).

I thought (with some trepidation) about what I could possibly contribute of interest in a city that is one of the world’s historically great centers of the graphic arts, and landed on “digitizing negatives”, a subject not only dear to my heart and (as my readers know) in which I have done a lot of work, but also of interest to a great many others who are reviving film, whether by revisiting the practice of analog photography or digitizing archives of negatives from years gone by. So, I sent a proposal, they liked it, and they offered me a two-hour workshop on Saturday February 7^th (https://tickets.photointernational.com/events/photointernational/1930508). This will be something of a “first” for both them and me because their workshops are in general more focused on the creative photography aspects of the medium, rather than the technical nitty-gritty of post-capture processing.  We’ll see how it works out. The whole workshop program looks attractive, with considerable choice of interesting avenues to explore. 

Enough about my little snippet of it; to give you a better flavour of what you can expect there, here is a link to their Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18511924114021463/?hl=en)

And of course, the City of Zurich itself, the world’s 3^rd largest art market, is worth seeing at any time of the year, with an abundance of fascinating and oft-times quirky outdoor and indoor artworks, world-renowned galleries, excellent antiquarian bookshops offering a good assortment of fine art and photography books in various languages, not to speak of the charming old-town, with buildings from the 13^th century onward. It also has a plethora of excellent restaurants and hotels. Here’s a small selection of my photographs from visits I’ve made over the years.  

There’s much to see and do in Zurich. Enjoy.

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