Magazine

From 08.01.2024 to 31.01.2024, CERVO at the Ferdinand is presenting an exhibition of pictures by Angel Fuchs.

Angel, with French-Swedish roots, successfully made the switch to the photography industry after graduating from EHL Lausanne. This summer she will also be our guest at the hotel as a Cabine Essence Artist. Find out more about Angel in our interview.

You've spent your entire life in Switzerland, even though your roots are in Sweden and France. To what extent does this cultural diversity influence your artistic work, especially your landscape photography?

Although I am originally from Sweden and France, Switzerland is the place I call home today and the place from which I feel I can always create due to its extensive beauty and landscapes. It is most probably because I have lived my entire life in Switzerland, that the environments I am the most drawn to are rocky landscapes, mountains, and glaciers. However, coming from other countries and cultures originally, I believe it is the reason I feel compelled to explore beyond our small country, and discover mountains elsewhere in the world. My images are essentially blue, mostly due to the coldness of the locations I shoot in, as well as the fact that I photograph mostly at night. But I would much rather shoot in cold areas of the world than in warmer ones, and that is most likely due to where I come from, which shows through my body of work today.

Your passion for landscape photography intensified in 2020 when you began exploring the mountains of Switzerland. What made this experience so unique and inspiring for you?

I consider 2020 to be one of the best years for me in terms of discovery and growth. Indeed, I started working at that time and used all my revenues as investment in proper photography equipment and mountain gear, which was the first thing that ignited my willingness to go out, see our beautiful mountains, and practice. The lockdown made it also possible for me to discover parts of the country I hadn’t visited before, with no tourists at all, and although that period was a difficult one for many, this allowed me to enjoy what we had in front of us, cherish it, and document it with photography. There is also a sense of responsibility that can emerge out of that, where I felt I was able to share images from locations that were suddenly closed to the world and the only way people outside Switzerland could enjoy it at the time was through the captures of people like me living there.

What made my experience so unique was also thanks to my partner, who at the time taught me a lot about mountaineering, survival, and planification, all of which being absolutely necessary for what I do today. He helped me build the foundations of safety and risk management in such environments for me to push my own limits a bit further every year.

Your desire to photograph rocky landscapes at night has become an obsession. What fascinates you about nocturnal landscapes, and how do you go about capturing the perfect shot?

My process is overall quite lengthy. The reason I spend so much time in the planning and ideation around a location I want to capture, is because I am able to build in my mind the image I will be composing with elements I find in nature, but that are not necessarily disposed how I imagine them to be. So, the work of finding your elements before and during the execution adds a whole new layer to photography that I didn’t have prior to that process. On top of that, I became fascinated by what the camera could capture at night, but that I couldn’t grasp with my eyes. And so, composing and adding that dimension of “invisible” elements to the naked eye in my images brings me a level of joy that I haven’t felt with anything else, due to the aesthetic I can create with night images. The satisfaction of bringing to life something that could never be observed to that extent is what makes me obsessed with the medium.

From January 8, you will be exhibiting at Restaurant Ferdinand. Can you give us a sneak peek of what visitors can expect? Is there a specific theme or message you want to convey with your images?

The exhibition will present 6 images showcasing mountains and glaciers by night. Half of the exhibition is dedicated to Swiss ice caves, two of which were captured in Zermatt, and the other half to my latest expedition in the Peruvian Andes.

Although there is more than 10’000km between the two locations, they both present similar views and lessons. The exhibition aims to highlight how we humans are just spectators of the world we live in, a world that conceals beauty from our eyes, but that is there, waiting to be discovered.

In July, you will be joining us as an Artist in Residence. What projects or activities do you have planned during your stay? Are there specific creative challenges you'd like to tackle?

While some of the activities are still to be decided, I aim to not only create a special piece from my stay next summer at the CERVO, but to bring photographer enthusiasts along with me, to shoot the landscapes, the stars, and share my editing process with them.

Sharing what I do and how I create my images brings me a lot of fulfillment and teaching others what photography can enable would be one of my main objectives there. Regarding my personal photography endeavor, there is an image that I have had in mind for a few months now, that requires me to come back several times, most probably covering both winter and summer conditions. For now, it is still work in progress but I am excited to create something very special from my stay there. 

In conclusion, Angel, is there a specific goal or vision you aim to achieve with your art? How do you hope to touch or inspire viewers with your images?

I spend quite some time emphasizing how what I do with photography does not aim to represent reality. However, I use elements of reality that once put back together, makes the viewer ask him/herself to what extent is this image “real”? Pushing the viewer to ask questions about what he/she sees is the consequence of sparking curiosity, and curiosity is the beginning of anything meaningful.

I truly believe that questioning our reality is key, not only to improve and grow individually, but to understand each other better because this is what cultivates our openness to the world and others.

I hope my work can play a part in this mission, and I hope it not only inspires people to question what they see, but also inspires them to go out and see it for themselves.