pendulum shift

Invited to exhibit on the Mauvoisin dam in Switzerland, Joan Ayrton chose to photograph the dam and the surrounding landscape with a camera called Tessina. An extremely tiny camera which appeared on the market at the end of the 1950s, when the Mauvoisin works were completed. In a history that is highly emblematic of the modern era, that of the construction of dams in the Swiss Alps, and that of a watchmaking industry that, following the stock market crash of 1929, had to reinvent itself, entering the field of photography. With a conversation in French and English between curator Jean-Paul Felley and Joan Ayrton. [publishers’ note]