Balthasar Burkhard

Switzerland (1944-2010)
Biennale Images Vevey
2008
Reconnaissances 1969-2007

For Festival Images, the Musée Jenisch Vevey presented Reconnaissances 1969-2007, the last major retrospective of the work of Balthasar Burkhard before he passed away. For forty years, the Bern-based photographer constantly confronted photography and painting with his monumental landscapes and massively enlarged body fragments. Sometimes enlarged to the full height of the exhibition space, his huge black and white prints question the artistic status of the photographic medium while delivering their full plastic and sensual qualities.

Biennale Images Vevey
2008
Cuba

President of the Jury for the Grand Prix Images Vevey 2007/2008, Balthasar Burkhard is internationally acknowledged for his large black and white formats, deep contrasts and close-ups. The Bern-based photographer produced one of his rare color series while travelling in Cuba in 2005. At Festival Images, his crepuscular images were featured outdoors in an architectural context from the 1930s, in large luminous boxes that recalled square-shaped slides, for viewing in the daytime as well as at night