Like the painter Albert Anker (1831 – 1910), Anne Golez didn’t set out to be an artist. But unlike Anker, who studied theology before enrolling in the École Impériale des Beaux-Arts de Paris, Golaz didn’t want to go to a French photography school. Sensitive to Anker’s bucolic scenes of Swiss life, the young photographer, 28, took inspiration from the painter for her series Scènes rurales.
A sign of the times? Instead of enrolling in the École Nationale d’Arles, she chose the École d’Arts appliqués de Vervey, in Switzerland, followed by the Aalto University from Art and Design in Helsinki, where she is currently pursuing a Masters in Photography in the Department of Media Studies. “Coming from Switzerland, I wanted to explore other horizons. I had no desire to study in France. While recognizing its value, I wanted out of this very French tradition of photography… In Switzerland, I felt that I was caught between the forces of French and German photography. In Finland, I find myself at the border or Europe and the rest of the world.”
Anne Golaz is the 2011 winner of the Lumière-Broncolor prize at the 8th annual International Images photography festival in Vevey, and first prize winner of the Lumi Photographic Art Award. She readily admits that she arrived at photography “by chance,” and was more inspired by the exploration of her family life than anything else. The representation of the rural world and the figure of the peasant are central to her approach. “My style is quite documentary,” says Golaz. “A relationship with the subject is central for me.”
In the series presented on her personal website, we discover a set of stories about farms accompanied by portraits and still lifes. The life depicted is hardly idyllic. This is a subsistence economy. In the world of Anne Golaz world, we love and help each other. The originality of her work is visible in the sincere way she shows us the simple pleasures of a community struggling to survive.
