Olivia Heussler, born in Zurich in 1957, is an independent Swiss photo artist and chronicler known for her iconic images of political and social movements. Raised in a family of artists, she developed an interest in art at an early age. She studied photography at the Zurich School of Art and later spent time as a scholarship holder at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, where she continues to maintain contact with international photo artists.
She curated several Projects and Exhibitions and direct the Site with the work of her Grandmother and Swiss Painter on alisguggenheim.com
She began working with a SLR camera in the USA late 1970s. After traveling through North and Central America, she began photographically documenting social upheavals.
Her images of the youth riots in Zurich in the 1980s became particularly well-known, capturing the creative protest of her generation.
Heussler's work later repeatedly took her to crisis-ridden Central American regions such as Nicaragua, where she documented the country's development in art and health Projects from revolution, through war, and the peace process to the current dictatorship between 1984 and 2015. Other significant projects include documenting the Kurdish population in Turkey and the human rights situation in Palestine, Israel, Chile, and Pakistan.
Heussler's photographs are exhibited internationally and are represented in public and private collections, external databases and were widely published in alternative and transnational print media at home and abroad. She teaches photography also as a mentor in various forums and is committed to promoting autonomy and independence in the visual sphere worldwide through her iconic images.
In her photo essays she shows: The Eighties youth uprising in; Zurich Summer 1980 (Jugendbewegung Jugendunruhen in Zürich 1980) and war and peace in Nicaragua in; The dream of Solentiname . Their recordings of the Palestinian Union of Medical Relief Committees were published in; Out of Jerusalem. Her photographs are represented in public and private collections and are shown in international art exhibitions. Olivia Heussler teaches photography also as Mentor and is a participant in various forums.
Heussler was Cofounder of Zurich based Lookat Photos in Zürich, Member of Impact Visuals, NYC and Impact Digitals. Her Work is to find in several agencys and archives like: Staatsarchiv Kanton Aargau, Keystone-SDA, Dukas, Fotostiftung Schweiz, ETH E-Pics.
Grants and Awards
1991 Art-Scholarship, City of Zurich
1992 Various Art-Scholarships and Residence at Cité des Arts, Paris
2010 Schönste Bücher, Deutscher Fotobuchpreis (Nominiert)
1988 Steo-Stiftung Zürich/Vogel-Casinelli Stiftung Zürich
Lectures
1991 Economic science faculty, Basel (Prof. Silvio Borner)
2012 3rd Philosophical Symposium, Bad Ragaz
2019 Fakulty Media and Communication, Belgrade
2019 Galerija, Beograde
ZHDK, Zürich
Le Salon, Locarno
Palace, St. Gallen
2010 IHNCA, Managua, NIC
Municipality of Haifa, ISR
Platz am Hof, Vienna, A
2002 «Frauen begegnen Frauen» Staatssekretariat für Migration, Bern
1995 L'arc, Littérature et Atelier de Réflexion contemporaire, Romainmôtier
1995 Month of Photography, Bratislava
Galleria La Rada, Locarno
1995 Foto Bar Silverstone Production (with Dona de Carli), Zürich
1994 Nuit de la Photo, Lausanne
2003 Projection Nocturne, Musée de l'Elysée Lausanne
1992 Projection Nocturne (with Jill Hartley), Foto Folie, Paris
Teaching/Workshops
HKB, Bern
2009 «Right now!» The 9th International Student Week of the University of Technology TU, Ilmenau
Schule und Kultur, Kanton Zürich
GAF, CH
The ONLINE-Photoarchive founded and created by the independent photographer herself with the help of fantastic volunteers and professionals. The archive is a rich and expanding collection of more than 10'000 mostly black and white photographic images gathered from the work in Switzerland, Germany, (East and West) France, England, Scotland, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, USA, Chile, Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Pakistan, Tunisia, Soviet Union, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tansania and other countries around the world. The collection spans the period from 1978 to today. The coverage of subject areas in the collection is quite broad, including:
- art, artists, portraits
- culture, traditions
- countryside and farmers' life
- drugs, coffee and tobacco
- education and children
- health care and birth, traditional medicine
- human and female rights
- hunting in scotland
- infrastructure and economics
- political actions, rallies and protests
- red carpet and notable people
- refugee camps
- religion
- revolution and military/religious conflicts
- robberies and death
- sports
- youth movement in Zurich in the 1980's
- war and victims of war
- work and work environment
Most of the photos on this site were extracted from a small format of 35 mm, medium format, of 5 x 5 cm Hasselblad or large format as 4 x 5 inch Sinar negative (high-resolution tiffs, 20 to 200 megabytes in size) and exist also in color. The images were digitally adjusted for contrast and color in Photoshop before being compressed and turned into the jpegs you see here.
Collections
Avina Foundation, Hurden
City of Zurich
Canton Zurich
Zentralbibliothek, Zürich
Aargauer Staatsarchiv, Aarau
Schweizer Sozialarchiv, Zürich
Fotostiftung, Winterthur
Swiss National Museum, Zurich
Ville de Bienne
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
Michèle et Michel Auer, Geneva
The Delfina Foundation, London
Banco del Gottardo, Lugano
Photo Elysée, Lausanne
Sammlung Annette und Peter Nobel, Zurich
Sammlung Francesca Snider, Advokatur- und Notariat, Locarno
Sammlung Dr. med. André Emanuel Dutly, Bellinzona
Sammlung Märkli/Müller, Zürich
