In Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer about the “father of the atomic bomb,” the figure of Albert Einstein plays an important supporting role. Several times and at crucial points in the film, J. Robert Oppenheimer seeks the advice of and exchanges ideas with Albert Einstein. Only about the first encounter between the two the film tells nothing.
History
The Limits to Growth
At the beginning of March, 2.3.2022, is the 50th anniversary of the publication of the report on the future of the world economy, The Limits to Growth, by the Club of Rome. It was written by the US economist Dennis L. Meadows and his wife Donella Meadows and the Norwegian Jørgen Randers.
“Metzgete”
It’s November and it’s happening again in many places in the country, the Metzgete. “Metzgete” literally means “slaughter” in Switzerland and in the extreme southwest of Germany, but it also stands collectively for all the dishes that are typically prepared from blood, offal, bacon and belly or head meat (usually from the pig) immediately after slaughter … (Wikipedia). Comet photographer Jules Vogt, who one can assume was not averse to such feasting, created an impressive reportage of the slaughter of a pig and the subsequent feast in November 1968. Vogt meticulously documented the events with his usual closeness to the people.
The Comets: Jules Vogt
Another short portrait from our series on Comet photographers is dedicated to Jules Vogt. He was born on December 9, 1928 in Zurich, where he completed an apprenticeship as a photographer at Foto Saager from 1944 to 1946 and took courses at the School of Applied Arts with Hans Finsler. He then worked for Otto Pfister’s agencies, Illustrations- und Photopress AG (1961-1974) and Comet (1963-1996). After his time at Comet, Vogt was increasingly found in advertising and regularly photographed for Züspa, the Geneva Motor Show and various industrial companies. Vogt was also a renowned aviation photographer. Jules Vogt passed away on July 30, 2006 in Ascona.
Happy New Year 2019!
The proverbial “Slide into the New Year” was taken literally on 31.12.1974 by some Zurich residents on Grossmünsterplatz. To musical accompaniment and torchlight they slid down a small metal slide, dressed in winter clothes. Comet photographer Hans Witschi was on site and recorded the event.
Rome, Fontana di Trevi, 1961
The late Baroque Trevi Fountain in Rome by Nicola Salvi (1697-1751), completed in 1762 by Giuseppe Panini, became famous for the nocturnal bath that Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg took in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960). One year after La Dolce Vita, the photograph by Comet photographer Hans Krebs was taken. It shows nuns throwing coins.
The Comets: on the occasion of Jack Metzger’s 100th birthday
The second photographer in our series about the players of Comet is Jack Metzger. He was born in Lucerne on 7.10.1918, so he could celebrate his hundredth birthday on Sunday.
Manneken-Pis, a strange, hybrid object
In our little series on the occasion of the Year of Cultural Heritage, another bronze sculpture in the urban space follows today. The “peeing boy”, created by Jérôme Duquesnoy in 1619, is a well-known fountain figure in Brussels. Catherine Emerson describes the figure as a strange, hybrid object:
225 years Louvre
The dream of a public art museum had already been cherished by several ministers of the ancien régime a few decades before the French Revolution as the Musée du Louvre in Paris was inaugurated on 10 August 1793 at the height of the revolution. Andrew McClellan writes:
The Comets: Björn Erik Lindroos
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