Collections

Photo Elysée manages and conserves major collections by international photographers such as Gabriel Lippmann, Lucia Moholy, Mario Giacomelli, Pierre de Fenoÿl, Gilles Caron, Geraldo de Barros, Marc Riboud, John Philipps, Pieter Hugo, Feng Li, Yang Fudong, Machiel Botman, Christine Spengler, Kenji Nakahashi, Pascal Convert, Martine Franck and Henri Cartier-Bresson, as well as Swiss photographers including Paul Vionnet, Adrien Constant-Delessert, Gabriel Eynard, André Schmid, l’atelier Boissonnas, Adolphe Braun, Giorgio Sommer, Emil Nicola-Karlen, Archibald Reiss, Jeanne Chevalier, Luc Chessex, Jean Otth, Theo Frey, Peter Binz, Christian Vogt, Michael von Graffenried, Ruth Erdt, Monique Jacot, Roger Humbert, Annelies Štrba and Christian Scholz. The museum also houses and conserves large collections such as part of the Vaud’s iconographic collection and the Polaroid collection. It also conserves albums and photographs by unknown artists.

Thanks to its expertise, the museum is also internationally recognized for its skills in managing complete photographic collections, which is why it has been entrusted with collections from the studios of Jongh, Pierre Gilliard, Gertrude Fehr, Ella Maillart, Rodolphe Schlemmer, Nicolas Bouvier, Charles Chaplin, Maurice Blanc, Jules Jacot-Guillarmod, Jean Herbert, Edouard Payot, Marcel Imsand, Jean Mohr, Hans Steiner, Jean-Pierre Grisel, Maurice Vouga, Suzi Pilet, Jan Groover, Lehnert & Landrock, Olivier Föllmi, René Burri, Pierre Keller and Sabine Weiss.

The notion of archives is particularly decisive, making it possible to trace the modus operandi of a given photographer through their negatives, contact sheets, proofs, exhibition prints, notebooks, correspondence, account books, paper documentation, publications and digital files. Conserving complete collections enables us to understand how each photographer considered their craft and developed their creative process or modus operandi, their professional career and their relationship with the medium, as well as their projects over the years.

Photo Elysée is committed to encouraging young, contemporary creation too, supporting various artists either over the long term or for specific projects. Among our collections is also work by Laia Abril, Matthias Bruggmann, Alina Frieske, Matthieu Gafsou, Agnes Geoffray, Yann Gross, Christian Lutz, Virginie Otth, Simon Rimaz, Nicolas Savary, Corinne Vionnet and Vasantha Yogananthan.

In its new premises at the Plateforme 10 site, the museum will benefit from storerooms with ideal conditions for conserving photographs: a depot at 6°C for negatives and slides, two depots at 11°C for color prints, two rooms at 17°C for black and white prints, glass plates and primitive photographs as well as a storeroom for photographers’ paper archives.

To process and care for its collections, the museum will also have a conservation/restoration workshop, a reproduction studio, a room to handle photographs and a consultation room; this will enable it to manage its collections in areas that are perfectly adapted to its needs and, on specific occasions, suitable for opening to the public under supervision.

Photo Elysée's collections are currently being moved to the museum's new storerooms at Plateforme 10. For this reason, access to certain items is still limited and all requests for research, loans or reproductions are addressed on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us at collections@elysee.ch.

Do you own a photograph or a set of photographs of patrimonial interest and wish to participate in the enrichment of Photo Elysée's collections? We are happy to receive your donation proposals at collections@elysee.ch. Please send us a detailed description and visuals. A committee meets four times a year to decide on new acquisitions.

Photo Elysée belongs to the Réseau Photo Vaud composed by several institutions which preserves photographs in the Canton of Vaud. This network aims to inform potential donors about their acquisition guidelines. To contact us, please write to info@elysee.ch.