We know relatively little about the photographers who worked for the photo agency Comet Photo AG from 1952 to 1998. Self-portraits or portraits of the ‘Comets’ are also rather thinly sown in the collection, as they usually stood behind the camera themselves and photographed
IMAGE ARCHIVE
Joan Miró, on the occasion of his 125th birthday
Today, April 20, Joan Miró would have turned 125. His often humorous paintings and sculptures made the Catalan one of the most popular artists of the 20th century.
Nautical Ex-Voto
During his stay in Copenhagen in September 1958, the Comet photographer Hans Gerber took pictures of the famous Grundtvigskirche and in its interior with a model ship hanging from the ceiling.
On the 50th anniversary of the death of Yuri Gagarin, First Man in Space
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin had made history through his first manned space flight on 12 April 1961 and was considered a national hero when he died on 27 March 1968 during a routine flight with a MiG-15 fighter jet.
125 years Diesel engine
Today, 125 years ago on 23 February 1893, Rudolf Diesel received the patent for the diesel engine in Berlin. What is interesting from a Swiss point of view, is the connection between Rudolf Diesel and Maschinenfabrik Sulzer AG in Winterthur, where the young inventor had already completed two internships.
The end of a notorious polluter
Thirty years ago, on 28 January 1988, the tower chimney built in 1964/65 for the heating centre of ETH Zurich at Hönggerberg was blown up in a spectacular operation. Previously, a strong eccentricity had been measured in the 80-metre high concrete chimney and visible damage had been detected, which led to the decision to demolish. The new, lower chimney system with three steel chimneys
Happy new year!
There are only two days left of the old year. We would like to thank our readers for their loyalty and wish everyone a happy and fulfilled 2018.
Ryhiner’s Python
The Swiss animal catcher Peter Ryhiner (1920-1975) had christened the blue-eyed python Serata (Sanskrit for “beauty”) and brought it from the vicinity of Kolkata to the USA and later to Switzerland. The picture was taken by a Comet photographer on the occasion of the opening of the travel agency Jacky Maeder at Sihlstrasse 38 in Zurich.
Born to be wild in the Swiss National Park
The first “modern” national parks were founded in the USA: Yosemite (1864) and Yellowstone (1872). For centuries, however, efforts have been made to preserve nature and shield it from human influence. One such example is Bogd
Sustainable tourism for the Swiss alpine region?
Mass tourism in the Swiss Alps was already a grim prospect for Hans Magnus Enzensberger in 1958. In his famous and oft-criticised essay Vergebliche Brandung der Ferne, Eine Theorie des Tourismus, he writes: