Shane LavaletteFotostiftung Schweiz2017512Theo Frey819971939National Suisse Exhibition

Something were not accustomed to happens in Shane Lavalettes pictures: we see the minor details of our everyday lives. We also notice something we Swiss are even less used to seeing: we discover, through the eyes of an outsider, the fine veins of poetry running through these scenes. The soft blades of bromegrass. The red blooms of poppies. Gable roofs in the distance. All mere details, to be sure, but altogether they form something abstract that we call home. We see it, or rather feel it, in Still (Noon), and it stirs something inside us that wont let go. For we Swiss are accustomed to a different pictorial register, that of the picture postcard. Mountain panoramas! The lakes! Edelweiss! The fondue pot! All marvelous places and things, but stripped of any poetry by their mass-produced picture-packaging for tourists. In May 2017, however, the Fotostiftung Sc