happy birthday to me ...

... I am (no longer) thirty-three. Nor thirty-four for that matter but thirty-five. Ouch! And it was actually my birthday a week or so ago but the point is, I received a wonderful package in the mail yesterday. My mum was kind enough to give me some birthday money and I used it to buy a book that I have been coveting for about a year. It has only been available to buy in Europe and postage was prohibitive, except as a birthday present.

The book is titled Tausend Blicke - Kinderporträts von Emil Brunner aus dem Bündner Oberland 1943/44, which translates roughly as 'A Thousand Glimpses - children's portraits by Emil Brunner from the Bündner Oberland 1943/44' (Bündner Oberland refers to a region of Switzerland - I think).

I have never been much of a photography fan but when we were in Switzerland last year I saw some images from this book as postcards. I didn't buy them as I tend to only buy postcards of works or places that I have actually seen and I hadn't seen any photo exhibitions. Nevertheless, the images remained with me and I conducted a rather clumsy phone call to the bookshop at the Schweizerischen Landesmuseum in Zurich to try and find out more about the photos or the photographer. And thus I discovered Emil Brunner, a press photographer who in 1943 and 1944 visited Swiss mountain villages and took these inspiring portraits of the children living there.










Photos from Limmat Verlag website
I can't say exactly what it is about these photos that I find so inspiring, or haunting. I just do and am delighted to have this book as my own. Thank you Mum for the wonderful present!