Marcel Herbst (Switzerland)
Vernacular architecture (men's impact on a natural environment)

These are photographs of installations regarding tourism (Tyrol) and interventions in view of a landslide (Bondo).

I am a social scientist and writer, a retired university administrator, but I shall sketch here my photography.

My interest in photography developed early. I was assisting Warja Honegger-Lavater (1958) in her work and search for photographs (by Werner Bischof). During my subsequent training in architecture, sociology and regional planning at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm and the Sozialforschungsstelle der Universität Münster in Dortmund (1958–63), I took courses in photography by Wolfgang Siol and Christian Staub, and I was influenced by the design concepts and the aesthetics of this school (Otl Aicher, Tomás Maldonado, et al.).

My photography paralleled my professional development, first as a student and teacher in regional planning and economics in the US (1965–74). 1970 I discovered the Roy Stryker collection of the FSA. After leaving the US, I joined an engineering firm (1974–88, working e.g. in Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan) and was in a position to photograph and document life (with Nikon F or Widelux cameras).

In the 1980s I acquired two 4x5 inch cameras (Sinar and Cambo Wide). My photography centered on landscapes and man-made influences, vernacular architecture, and Jewish cemeteries. Over the past four decades, I have worked on a range of projects, e.g. Poyln (Eastern Europe), and vernacular architecture and landscapes (worldwide).