THE MAN BEHIND THE MAGIC

Zürich, Switzerland, 2021

There is a little bit of magic in the way Ulka Chauhan met the revered Swiss master photographer René Groebli.  The seemingly large gap of time, space, language and culture that separate these two image makers disappeared in the face of a shared love for photography.

Now 94,  René Groebli enjoys a relatively quiet life in Zürich after an internationally renowned career spanning over six decades of creating pioneering work. Ulka Chauhan on the other hand is relatively new to photography, embarking on her visual journey just a few years ago, chronicling life between her two homes in India and Switzerland.

Chances are that the two would never have met if not for the compelling power of the photographic image.

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It was just before the lockdown in December 2020, when Ulka was in search of books by Swiss photographers, that René Groebli’s The Magic Eye was recommended to her at Gallery Bildhalle in Zürich. A casual glance through the first retrospective look at Groebli’s impressive body of work of over 60 years, and Ulka immediately knew she had to have it.  

Stilled and stimulated by Groebli’s photographs, which are frozen in time and yet move powerfully through it, Ulka quickly became absorbed in finding out more about the post war photographer.

From Groebli’s long time gallerist at Gallery Bildhalle she learned that he loves to visit the gallery often dressed in his favourite colour combination, green and purple or purple and red.

As someone who is attentive to detail, she was fascinated by every detail of his book. From the black and white image on the linen cover, to the front and end papers in his favourite colours to his artistic signature.

As someone with a love for words, Ulka was intrigued by the foreword and curatorial note by art writer, Daniel Blochwitz who describes Groebli as, “An artist who never bowed to trends or the artistic zeitgeist, he spent over six decades in single minded pursuit of images that jog visual assumption and chart new territory. He is a magician with a camera, the camera being his magic eye.”

And most importantly… as someone with a love for all things photography, Ulka was immediately enthralled by the quiet and poetic eloquence of Groebli’s images; his classic black and white pictures with purposeful grain, his trendy yet timeless pop and op art inspired colour work, his pioneering experiments with movement, and his very intimate ‘Eye of Love’ series from his honeymoon in Paris.

“It is not often in a book that every image speaks to me. However, I am not sure what it is… but I strangely found resonance on every page. I became a big fan and admirer of his work, and not secretly so,” says the visual storyteller as she became increasingly inspired to meet the iconic photographer in person.

Finally, it was summer of 2021 when she found herself at Rene Groebli’s doorstep.

“Full of nervous excitement and not wanting to be late, I reached his place a half an hour before the scheduled time. I was waiting at the front entrance in pouring rain when a neighbour of his told me I should buzz him and go in despite being so early. As an appreciation for his generous invite, I took along some Swiss tea and honey and a copy of my Two Worlds photo book to gift to him.

Being at his home almost felt surreal. I was afraid that we might have a communication gap due to language and culture. But his gentle and friendly nature immediately made me feel comfortable and at ease. He went through my book and in exchange gifted me one of his.

After discussing his photography and pioneering techniques, we got to the more personal parts of the conversation… about life, love, relationships and more.

When it came time to leave, I thanked him for his time and for sharing his stories with me.

My intention at the beginning was to do a written interview of him for the Swiss Street Collective. But having met him, I felt strongly that his work and story is of such significance, I couldn’t do justice to it with a written interview alone.

That is how the idea of a video portrait, The Man Behind the Magic, came about.

- Text by Samira Sheth & Ulka Chauhan