Jakob Tuggener’s Fabrik, published in Zurich in 1943, is considered to be a milestone in the history of photography books. The series of 72 photographs in this Photo Epos of Technology is oriented toward the expressionist aesthetic of the silent movie. It imparts a sceptical view of the destructive potential of unbridled technological progress, at the time the Swiss military industry was producing weapons for World War II.
Tuggener’s uncompromising subjective photography and his critical attitude did not suit his time. Fabrik was not a commercial success, the copies were sold at a loss and in part apparently even converted to pulp. Now the work, which has since become a sought-after classic, is being reissued as a reprint with a contemporary afterword.
Jakob Tuggener (1904–1988) was a photographer, film maker and painter. In the major themes of his photographic work, labor in a factory, simple rural life and magnificent parties of high society, Tuggener composed print-ready book maquettes, but for Fabrik alone he found a publisher. Tuggener was presented by Otto Steinert (Exhibition “subjektive fotografie” 1951/53) and – arranged by Robert Frank – by Edward Steichen (Exhibition “Post-War European Photography” and “Family of Man” 1953/55). The Helmhaus in Zurick devoted a retrospective to him in 1974. Tuggener left an immense and practically untouched life work: more than 60 book maquettes, thousands of exhibited photographs and work prints, hundreds of color slides, drawings, watercolors, oil paintings and more than 20 silent films.
Fabrik, A Photo Epos of Technology
Jakob Tuggener
Steidl & Partners
ISBN: 978-3-86521-493-5
UK £45.00
US $85.00
EC €65.00
