Gotthard Schuh

(b Iseltwald, 22 Dec 1897; d Zurich, 29 Dec 1969). Swiss photographer. After studying painting at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basle he lived for some years in Munich and Paris, before moving in 1926 to Zurich, where he joined the Rot-Blau group. In 1931 he began to take photography seriously after Arnold K?bler, the chief editor on the Z?rcher Illustrierten, expressed an interest in his amateur photographs. In the following years Schuh, together with Paul Senn, was responsible for the distinctive pictorial appeal of Z?rcher Illustrierten. He also worked for Vu, Life, Paris-Match and the Berliner illustrierte Zeitung.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

Schuh, Gotthard (1897-1969), German-born Swiss painter and photojournalist, who took up photography in the mid-1920s and in the 1930s contributed to the Berliner illustrirte Zeitung, Vu, Life, Paris Match, and Swiss journals. However, his two best-known images, of a boy stretched out playing a game, and a temple dancer, were taken in Indonesia in 1938-9 and published in Insel der Götter (1940). In 1941-60 he was picture editor of the Neue zürcher Zeitung, and co-founded the Working Party of Swiss Photographers in 1951 with Werner Bischof, Walter Läubli, Paul Senn, and Jakob Tuggener. He returned to painting in 1960.

— Lisa Ann Lavender

Bibliography

• Ein Zeitbild 1930-1950—Paul Senn, Hans Staub, Gotthard Schuh: 3 Schweizer Photoreporter (1986)