THE WINDING PATH TO WORLD KNOWLEDGE

Olivier Föllmi is not trying to document the lives of the people he visits around the world. He is on the search for higher ground, for what connects people to their landscape where they have put down their roots. It is a path of intense insight – into the basic correlations in the widest sense among people, nature, and religion – that determines his life as a photographer.

Together with Danielle Föllmi, who was an internationally practicing doctor and today conducts sociological research, he has been transmuting the experiences gained over long and intense travel and the spiritual heritage of humanity into images since 1984. Olivier Föllmi: “I try to reflect the intensity of a moment shared. And that intensity starts when the notion of time disappears. The more intense the moment, the more time seems less important. My photos are therefore timeless. When you’re up on a mountain, at one with nature, the perception of space is modified by the immensity of nature and the feeling of how fragile man is.”

For decades Olivier Föllmi has taken trips to the cultural hearts of countries in Asia, Africa, and North America. He takes his time, spending months or years in distant areas to get to know closely and depict the people there, their beliefs and their feelings. He calmly encounters ancient civilizations, which from their outset have maintained an inspiration that has retained its validity for life today. Above all, the mountain regions of the Himalayas and its native Buddhism have from the very beginning influenced his thoughts, feelings, and work.

Danielle and Olivier Föllmi call themselves travelers and humanists; it is their goal to collect the wisdom of humanity in images and the texts of major thinkers and to pass them along to others in publications, editions, and large-scale exhibitions. Oliver Föllmi has published 18 books of images thus far and has received numerous awards for his commitment.

Horst Klöver