There are only two opportunities to visit this exhibition: on Friday, 11 September 2026, and on Friday, 25 September 2026, each from 18:00 to 21:00. At Fotogalerie Embrach, the joint exhibition VENICE – PORTRAITS presents photographs created during past PORTRAIT INTENSE CLASS events in Venice.
- Friday, 11 September 2026, 18:00–21:00
- Friday, 25 September 2026, 18:00–21:00
I am very pleased that these works are coming together for two evenings at Fotogalerie Embrach. Not as a retrospective in the classical sense, but as an invitation to experience different photographic perspectives on a city, on people and on portrait photography side by side.
Portrait photography in a city with its own presence
Venice is a special place for portrait photography. The city can hardly be viewed neutrally. Alleys, squares, canals, façades, bridges and the changing light influence every photographic decision. At the same time, this is precisely where the challenge lies for me: Venice should not simply be a background. The city may be felt in the image without pushing aside the person in front of the camera.
For me, a good portrait lives from this balance. The place, the light, the posture, the gaze, the distance to the camera and the composition all interconnect. In Venice, this balance is constantly changing. A narrow passage can condense an image. An open space can give a person room. Reflections in the water, hard shadows on a wall or soft light in an alley can turn a simple situation into an independent visual idea.
The exhibition shows how differently photographers can work with the same conditions. Everyone moves through the same city, but no one sees it in the same way. That is exactly the difference that interests me: not the repetition of a motif, but the development of a personal visual language through encounter, perception and decision.
Joint exhibition with eight photographers
At Fotogalerie Embrach, eight photographers present their works from Venice:
- Efstratios Dartzalis
- Wolfgang Trepte
- Pius Gruber
- Adolf Genhart
- Pascal Uehli
- Urs Spörri
- Felix Pfister
- Daniel Honegger
The names stand not only for a shared photographic journey, but for different ways of approaching portraits. Some images seek closeness, others work more strongly with space. Some photographs are carried by clear forms, others by atmosphere, movement or the moment between two gestures. For me, this is an important part of a group exhibition: it makes visible that photography is always also a personal decision.
When several photographers work in the same place, there is no single uniform answer. Variations, focal points, tensions and surprising connections emerge. This becomes especially clear in portraits. The person in front of the camera is never merely a subject. A portrait grows out of contact, trust, attention and the way in which photographer and photographed person carry a situation together.
Created during the PORTRAIT INTENSE CLASS
The photographs on display were created during PORTRAIT INTENSE CLASS events, which I regularly organise in Venice for small groups of portrait photographers. At the centre of these multi-day photography trips is not the quick collecting of beautiful locations, but the conscious work with people, light, location and visual language.
This way of working is important to me because a coherent portrait series needs time. You have to learn to read a place, develop a feeling for the light and at the same time remain open to what unfolds in front of the camera. Not every idea works immediately. Sometimes a strong image only emerges when you let go of one direction and look more closely.
Venice supports this process, but also challenges it. The city is visually dense. There are many possible images, many distractions and many familiar views. In portrait photography, I am therefore particularly interested in reduction. What does an image really need? Where does the place become part of the narrative? When is a wall, a shadow, a line or a gesture enough?
These questions also lie behind many of the works that can now be seen in Embrach. The exhibition is therefore not only a presentation of individual photographs, but also an insight into photographic processes: into searching, deciding, condensing and selecting.
Venice as part of the visual language
Venice changes images. Not because the city automatically produces strong photographs, but because it brings a particular tension with it. It is open and intricate at the same time. It feels familiar and unfamiliar. Light often falls unexpectedly into narrow spaces, water reflects brightness onto faces and walls, shadows place clear forms across squares and façades.
In portrait photography, a place like this can tell a great deal if one does not give it too much space. I am interested in how a person enters into a relationship with the surroundings. Do they stand in contrast to the place or become part of it? Does the architecture become a line in the image? Does a shadow become a surface? Does a sense of closeness emerge, even though the city remains present?
Whether a photograph works in black and white or in colour does not depend on a fixed rule for me. Black and white can help direct attention more strongly towards light, tonal values, expression and body language. Colour can carry a situation in a different way. What matters is what effect the image needs and which decision serves the series.
Especially in an exhibition, this question becomes visible in a different way than on a screen. Photographs enter into relation with one another. You notice transitions, discover recurring forms, differences in closeness to the person, different kinds of calm, tension or directness. Looking becomes slower. And sometimes an image changes when you stand in front of it for longer.
Invitation to Fotogalerie Embrach
I see this exhibition as a beautiful opportunity to view portrait photography from Venice not only online or as an individual selection of images, but in a physical space. Fotogalerie Embrach offers a focused setting for this. The works can take effect side by side, speak to one another and perhaps also show how different photographic signatures can be, even though they have emerged from a shared context.
Anyone interested in portrait photography, Venice, photographic series or working with people in front of the camera is warmly invited to come by on one of the two evenings. The exhibition is open only on these two Fridays:
- Friday, 11 September 2026, 18:00–21:00
- Friday, 25 September 2026, 18:00–21:00
I look forward to encounters at Fotogalerie Embrach, to conversations about images and to the moment when Venice appears not as a travel picture, but as part of a photographic engagement with people, light and perception.
Further information about the exhibition on https://fogae.ch.
