Tomas Wüthrich

Photography

*Doomed Paradise* - © © Tomas Wüthrich, Swiss Design Awards Blog
*Doomed Paradise* - © © Tomas Wüthrich, Swiss Design Awards Blog
*Doomed Paradise* - © © Tomas Wüthrich, Swiss Design Awards Blog
*Doomed Paradise* - © © Tomas Wüthrich, Swiss Design Awards Blog
*Doomed Paradise* - © © Tomas Wüthrich, Swiss Design Awards Blog
*Doomed Paradise* - © © Tomas Wüthrich, Swiss Design Awards Blog
Here: Doomed ParadiseDoomed Paradise is a photographic book by Tomas Wüthrich printed on rockpaper, a waterproof paper made without wood pulp. That way, the photographer can bring the book back to the Penan, the people he went to meet in the jungles of Borneo and where he spent five years documenting the struggle of a tribe threatened by illegal deforestation — which has now affected 90% of Sarawak’s territory — and at the same time attracted by the welfare and commodities of our contemporary lifestyle.
There: Archive and experienceThe book, designed by Atlas Studio, includes transcriptions of oral myths, collected by Canadian linguist Ian Mackenzie, as well as spoken stories and field recordings accessible through QR codes. The volume is both an archive of a disappearing culture and an immersive journey to an almost inaccessible place. The series was exhibited at the Kornhausforum Bern and at Never Stop Reading, Zurich, in 2019, as well as at the Verzasca Foto Festival in 2018.
Everywhere: Here and thereBy going to this place, Wüthrich saw an opportunity to reflect on his own culture and history. In the 1980s, Bruno Manser left Switzerland in search of a simple life and joined the Penan in the rainforest. His activism had a worldwide impact and became a milestone in building awareness of environmental causes in Switzerland.
The photographer’s work with the same tribe twenty years later also mirrors our own struggling relationship with the transforming environments we’re surrounded by, however physically distant they are. That tension is also present in the reportage he made in Eritrea and which received 2018 the Swiss Photo Award vfg selection, in the Reportage category.
Tomas Wüthrich(*1972), Based in Liebistorf, FR, www.tomaswuethrich.ch
EducationPress Photography, MAZ, Lucerne
Project(s)Doomed Paradise, 2019

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