Rudolf Zinggeler’s 146 photo albums of original prints document life in Switzerland between 1883 and 1939. Album No. 6 takes the viewer through the Bregaglia Valley in Graubünden – a photographic journey that artfully combines landscapes, village life and private moments.
By Sarah Losego Tayyem
Photo albums have been radically transformed by the digital age, mostly disappearing from our everyday lives. However, they were once central to documenting our family memories and travel recollections. These albums were usually carefully arranged and labelled. The Prints and Drawings Department of the National Library has preserved an excellent example of this tradition: the 146 photo albums of the Zurich silk thread manufacturer Rudolf Zinggeler. Bound in rough beige linen, his albums contain hundreds of original prints created between 1883 and 1939. Not only do they have artistic merit, but they also provide invaluable documentation of the culture and landscapes of that time. They are part of the Zinggeler archive, which also contains 15,000 original negatives.
Album No. 6
Album No. 6 is dedicated to the Bregaglia Valley. This compact album unfolds like a road movie, illustrating a journey that Zinggeler took between 1927 and 1928. The photographic narrative begins at the alpine pastures above Lake Sils, travels over the Maloja Pass into the Bregaglia Valley and ends after crossing the Swiss border into the Italian town of Chiavenna. Zinggeler has a methodical approach: he first circles the valley from outside, observing it from a distance and exploring its periphery before gradually working his way into the interior. He records the regions he visits from several vantage points, from sweeping landscape views to intimate close-ups. The images are carefully composed and consistently supplemented with handwritten captions penned by his wife Louise.
Documentary spirit with a personal touch: Zinggeler’s view of the Bregaglia Valley
The album opens with images of the Grevasalvas and Blaunca alps, along with the Hotel Maloja Palace, captured in impressive long-range shots. Zinggeler then turns his lens further south to the mountain lakes of Cavloc and Bitabergh, with their reflective surfaces set against dramatic mountain scenery. Once in Bregaglia, he captures panoramic views of the villages from every direction and also provides snapshots of everyday village life: women doing laundry at a fountain, farmers harvesting hay and ox-drawn carts with heavy loads on unpaved roads.
Album No. 6 stands out for how it combines rigorous documentation with personal elements. Unlike most other albums dedicated to alpine regions, this one also features private moments. Travel companions or family members crop up occassionally in the photographs, though usually as small figures in the background. These personal touches lend the album an unusual kind of intimacy that is mostly absent from Zinggeler’s other, more strictly documentary work.
Another highlight of the album is its documentation of catastrophic flooding that took place in 1927. The photos capture fields of debris, fallen trees and damaged landscapes alongside clean-up efforts and the repair of destroyed infrastructure – a stark contrast to the idyllic scenes elsewhere in the album, lending it a dramatic dimension.
Road movie in black and white
Zinggeler’s albums aren’t just random collections of images, but carefully curated works with clear narrative structures. Album No. 6, for instance, guides the viewer through a sequence of landscapes, villages and events, imitating the narrative arc of a road movie. Zinggeler’s photographs are meticulously arranged, highlighting his desire not only to document his travels but to craft them into a narrative. It’s a systematic approach that reflects his overall discipline: As a chemist and businessman, he was used to working with precision and care – an attitude that is reflected in his photography.
Although Album No. 6 may not be his most beautiful output, it provides special insight into how he worked: It reveals him to be an ambitious artist and meticulous documentarian who also captured occasional personal moments. Through its mix of landscape photography, village scenes and rare personal glimpses, the album is not only a visual journey through the Bregaglia Valley but also a valuable piece of Swiss cultural and social history.
Gustav Rudolf Zinggeler was born in Wädenswil on 8 October 1864 and died in Kilchberg on 21 July 1954. After studying chemistry in Winterthur, Zurich and Geneva, he joined his father’s silk thread factory in Richterswil in 1885. Starting in 1890, he devoted himself to photography, with a particular passion for documenting his travels in the alpine regions of Valais, Graubünden and Ticino. His work captures the landscapes, everyday lives and craftsmanship of those local populations and has considerable historical and aesthetic value. Zinggeler left behind some 15,000 photographic prints and 15,276 glass negatives, which are now housed at the Swiss National Library. An additional 2,000 to 3,000 glass negatives are held by the Swiss National Museum.
Literature and sources
- Lorenz Homberger, Walter Anderau: Rudolf Zinggeler. Fotopionier in Kilchberg: vom Rebbauerndorf zur stadtnahen Zürichseegemeinde, in: Municipality of Kilchberg, Neujahrsblatt, No. 043, 2002.
- Georg Sütterlin: “Zinggeler, Rudolf”, in: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, version from 25.01.2015. Online: consulted on 30.06.2025.
- Nikolaus Wyss: Rudolf Zinggeler. Fotografien von 1890-1936. Ein Zürcher Industrieller erwandert die Schweiz. Basel: Verlag der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Volkskunde, 1991.
Last modification 25.11.2025
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