Where the City Breathes
Welcome to Issue 20 (!) of UNEDITED, my online (maga)zine. This issue follows my exhibition Where the City Breathes in Biel/Bienne. A walkthrough of the exhibition, the stories behind the pictures and a city I slowly fell in love with. Strange, open and freeing. Especially as a photographer, Biel can feel like a place where you simply fit in.
THE BACKSTORY
Little Breaks Between Foreign Assignments
ISSUE 20
Biel/Bienne sits on a lake in western Switzerland and is the country’s biggest bilingual city, constantly moving between German, French and English. Known for watchmaking and industry, it feels rougher, stranger and somehow more open than the Switzerland most people imagine.
A hot mic moment with Tavi filming while we were making pictures in Biel. Just playing around, trying things, talking nonsense and photographing without pressure for once.
(You can tap the small audio wave icon on the top right of the frame to hear the video/audio clip.)
Kate is one of those people who helps define Biel for me. She lives by the lake in a small boathouse and runs the city’s only boat rental company. We spent time out on the water, which felt strangely freeing.
But the picture that ended up in the exhibition happened after we returned. She let a younger boy park the boat while rowers pulled out behind them. Somehow that moment felt more true to Biel than anything else from the day.
Some pictures simply happen while walking through the street. It was still early evening, the sun already gone but enough light left to illuminate the tent. Then I noticed a woman inside the red structure.
I took a dozen frames or so. She noticed me, looked away again, and somehow this one stayed. I still love the colours, her expression and the yellow line cutting through the reflection.
I don’t know how many times I walked up and down Bahnhofstrasse just getting from one place to another, so at some point it had to become part of the exhibition. I loved the dark clouds rolling in while the sun suddenly lit up the street and the characters moving through it.
I was sitting in a café trying to motivate myself to go out and start photographing again. Sometimes it takes a moment to get back into it. To face people again and get close with a camera.
Right outside, kids were skating. I walked over, asked to take pictures, and they instantly said yes. That small moment completely changed the day and turned into one of those really good shooting days.
Music is a huge part of Biel and western Switzerland in general. This whole region has a deep connection to jazz and emotion, shaped partly by places like the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Inside Café Littéraire during one of their jazz evenings, listening to a dreamy session in the packed cellar venue, I ended up with this reflection in a glass looking almost like a mountain landscape while the pianist was playing.
I wanted a top shot of Biel. Anyone who has taken a workshop with me knows how important those pictures are for me. I usually take them during my favourite time of day, when night is falling but there is still enough blue light left to balance with the tungsten glow of the city.
Maybe as a photographer I’m especially drawn to Biel’s art scene because it still feels alive. I went with Ruedi, standing in the middle, to a meeting inside an old factory where artists and the city discussed the future of their ateliers and community spaces.
Many had been told on short notice they would have to leave. We stood inside a dance and theatre rehearsal room while discussing what happens when creative spaces disappear. I grew up around similar places in Hong Kong and know how important they are.
On the first day of photographing in Biel I already felt the city would be welcoming. One of those people was Baris, a Kurd who has runs an African shop here for years. I wanted to show him at work among the colourful products, using a nicely curved mirror.
This picture became the beginning of the project. I had just arrived in Biel after dinner with Ivan from Leica Camera and Reto from REBL. On the way back to the hotel I noticed this strong blue light and started photographing people walking through it.
Then Haben and Kbret suddenly approached me and asked me to take their picture. Somehow that became my introduction to Biel and a city that immediately took me in as a photographer.
Inside the old stadium stands of Terrain Gurzelen, Lukas takes care of a strange collection of cassettes, books, instruments and forgotten objects. Kids and visitors drift through to listen to music, explore or simply spend time there.
He once studied photography, but now spends his time here surrounded by old music players, books and objects, without even owning a mobile phone. The picture became one of the largest works in the exhibition because places and people like this feel increasingly rare.
One of Biel’s oldest taxi drivers, he has been driving cabs here since the 1990s and quietly watched the city change over decades. Without hesitation he let me spend time with him, before a final call came in and he drove off to finish his long shift.
'Böxli' Toni is one of those characters everyone in Biel seems to know. You usually hear him before you see him, playing his music somewhere between Burger King and the station entrance. I passed him many times, but on this day the light and the whole scene finally felt right.
One of those moments where I was mostly playing with lines, layers and small details coming together. The graffiti, reflections, people outside, the couple below. Somehow it all felt very Biel to me, different characters and moments existing beside each other in the same frame.
After photographing Biel from the roof of Hotel Elite, I took the lift back down and was about to leave through the entrance when this moment appeared. The city was already dark outside, but the warm hotel light around the mother and child stopped me immediately.
Rahel likes to go swimming even when it still feels like winter. She tries to do one ritual swim a day, with the water usually somewhere between 5 and 9 degrees. Watching her calmly step into the cold water felt both slightly insane and strangely peaceful.
I wanted at least one picture connected to watchmaking, something deeply tied to Biel. I actually found Dario’s workshop through Google Maps, walked in and asked if I could photograph him. He simply smiled and said yes.
Dario is a trained watchmaker who opened his own workshop in Biel’s old town after working for ETA on Omega calibres. Surrounded by tiny tools, movements and clocks, the workshop felt calm, focused and completely timeless.
And what’s a personal project without a self portrait. Taken at the stadium on April 6th, the last day of photographing in Biel before the project slowly came to an end.
OFF THE RECORD
One that didn’t make it into the exhibition. Ismael works at the Caritas shop right beside where I’m exhibiting and has been boxing for most of his life. I loved his energy immediately, especially his hands, real fighter’s hands, while somehow being one of the kindest people.
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