Olivia Heussler

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Olivia Heussler (born 18 November 1957 in Zurich, Switzerland) is a freelance Swiss video and photojournalist, artist, and co-founder of international image and photo agencies.

Contents

[edit] Life and Works

Since 1980, Olivia Heussler has been documenting oppositional and progressive movements in her works, making visible everyday lives of people who live in zones of conflict, both in Switzerland and abroad. In Switzerland, Heussler has been focussing on politics of immigration and on consequences of asylum law, moreover she is a notable documentalist of the 1980s Zurich Youth Movement (culminating in the „Opernhauskrawalle“). Heussler's international works include reportage series done during travels in Sudan, Kurdistan, Eastern Europe, Israel, Palestine, Tanzania, Nicaragua, Honduras, Chile and Pakistan.

In the 1970s, Heussler started her professional life in the field of medical assistant alongside which she taught herself the craft of photojournalism. In 1980-1983 Heussler worked as a freelance photographer for Keystone Press and has been a freelancer ever since. In 1984-1987 Heussler untertook several stays in Nicaragua for APIA Agency and founded the photo agency Nueva Imagen. Ever since Heussler was accepted for an internship at what is today the School of Art and Design Zurich/University of Applied Sciences and Arts Zurich in 1988, she has been receiving a series of scholarships, including a workshop scholarship at Cité des Arts (Paris in 1992. Two more agencies were co-founded by Heussler in the 1990s: Lookat Photos in Zurich, together with M. Bauer, T. Kern, F.v. Muralt, T. Muscionico and R. Wehrli (1990), also Impactdigitals in New York in 1996. Since 1987, Heussler has been teaching at the gaf, the Zurich Group of Autodidactics in Photography.

Heussler and her daughter live in Zurich, Switzerland.

[edit] Political Views & Activism

"One doesn’t have to photograph the battlefield to show what war is. I document what these movements provoke and can depict that. Most clearly, through those concerned, on whose side I am. " (Olivia Heussler) [1]
"As a Photographer it was also my duty to teach my subjects to take pictures themselves. … That is what I understand as development aid: give people a craft and instruction so they can work independently. And, given widespread illiteracy, photography is ideal for promoting autonomy." (Olivia Heussler) [2]

Olivia Heussler’s philosophy is to do photojournalism as human rights work inspired by one’s own impulses, e.g. going where one feels one has to go to do one’s work. With her choice of regions and localities, Heussler does not go by media attention, but travels independently, often joining colleagues of other professions, be they foreigners or local activists. This is the method followed in her most acclaimed photojournalist series from Kurdistan, Palestine and Nicaragua.

[edit] Solo exhibitions in English

1993 Jenseits von Jerusalem/ Out of Jerusalem, Biel (Photoforum PasquArt)
1996 Peoples in Zones of Conflict, Zafta (Israel, Haifa ISR Municipality)

[edit] Books published in English

  • Jenseits von Jerusalem, Out of Jerusalem (Exhibition in Photoforum Pasquart in Biel, 7 - 20 June 1993), Texts: Martin Woker, Ruchama Marton, Sumaya Farhat Naser. Translation into English: Evan Scott Porter. Ed. Esther Woerdehoff. (Text in both English and German) Bern: Benteli, 1993. ISBN 3-7165-0896-9
  • 25 Years Rebuilding Lives: United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, Kälin, Walter. Photos by Olivia Heussler. Geneva: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2006. ISBN 92-1-154167-0 (English), ISBN 92-1-254157-7 (French.), ISBN 92-1-354092-2 (Spanish)

[edit] Examples of Heussler’s photojournalist work by subtitle

In The Face of Human Rights[3] the following photos by Olivia Heussler can be found:

Prohibition of discrimination: Czech Republic, Brno, 1992: "Death for Gipsies!" (p. 109 above right), Guatemala, 1985: During a campaign by a women’s group (Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo), formed to help one another (p. 143 above), Honduras, Tegucigalpa, April 1984: Honduran military generals during a meeting (p. 143 below), Switzerland, Zurich, March 1993: Refugees from Sri Lanka learning German (p. 149), Protection of private life: Italien, Brindisi, 1992: Police raid in the quarter il Paradiso (p. 339 above), The right to work: Pakistan, Quetta, 2001: Three Hazara boys work as carpet weavers 10 hours a day, seven days a week and for $30 a month (p. 511), Nicaragua, Mulukukú, 1994: Women of the MLO (Maria Luisa Ortiz) Women’s cooperative are instructed in their carpentry workshop (p. 516), The Protection of property: Schwitzerland, Zurich, 1988: Allotment garden (p. 531 above), Fair trial and prohibition of torture: Turkey, Ankara, December 1990: Judge Muhittin Mihcak during a trial against three Kurdish lawyers (p. 584 below), Guatemala, Guatemala City, 1985: People standing in a public place in front of a list of missing persons (p. 605 below), Political rights and freedom of expression: Romania, Sibiu, 20 May 1990: The Roma family Mihai going to vote for the first time (p. 646), Romania, Sibiu, 20 May 1990: Romani woman Mrs Mihai is going to vote for the first time in 40 years (p. 653 above).

[edit] External links

[edit] Sources

  1. ^ Jenseits von Jerusalem, Out of Jerusalem. Bern: Benteli, 1993, p. 13
  2. ^ Jenseits von Jerusalem, Out of Jerusalem, p. 14-15
  3. ^ The Face of Human Rights, edited by Walter Kälin, Lars Müller, Judith Wyttenbach. Baden: Lars Müller Publishers, 2004. 720 pages with about 500 photos, ISBN 3-03778-017-7
Languages