To this day, Walter Mittelholzer (1894–1937) is famous as a pilot, a cofounder of Swissair and for his aerial photographs of the Swiss Alps. His flying expeditions abroad, which proved Mittelholzer also to be a shrewd media entrepreneur, are less well-known, however. He used every channel to market the images of his travels: books, films and in the press. Mittelholzer’s breakthrough came with his Africa flight from Zurich to Cape Town on the seaplane Switzerland in 1926/27.
ETH Library’s new illustrated book Walter Mittelholzer Revisited examines this media production and his image of Africa in a new light: textually in an introduction by journalist Kaspar Surber, visually in a selection of over 170 photographs from the Mittelholzer holdings in the Image Archive.
Walter Mittelholzer Revisited is the sixth volume in the series Pictorial Worlds. Photographs from ETH Library’s Image Archive.
The book can be purchased from ETH Library’s
Collections and Archives reading room, bookshops or the publisher Scheidegger & Spiess.
In E-Pics Image Archive Online, all 18,000 photographs from Walter Mittelholzer’s holdings can be viewed and downloaded for free.
The book launch with a welcome by Dr Rafael Ball and introduction by Kaspar Surber takes place on 9 May 2017 at 19.00 in the new bookshop Never Stop Reading, Spiegelgasse 18 / Untere Zäune, 8001 Zurich.
Preview
Additional photographs and a video collage featuring Mittelholzer’s visual legacy will be on display at the National Museum Zurich from October 2017 to January 2018.
Mittelholzer, Walter: Dornier Merkur, CH-171 “Switzerland” der Ad Astra Aero AG auf dem Zürichsee vor dem Afrikaflug, ca. 1926 (LBS_SR02-00045, http://doi.org/10.3932/ethz-a-000458301)
Mittelholzer, Walter: Flugplatz in Addis Abeba, ca. 03/1934. Abessinienflug, Hinflug 2.2.1934-23.2.1934, Rückreise 1934. Reportage mit 1121 Bildern (alle digitalisiert) (LBS_MH02-22-0778, http://doi.org/10.3932/ethz-a-000244468)
Mittelholzer, Walter: Typen aus dem Atlas: der rastlose Händler, 1930/1931. Tschadseeflug, 2.12.1930-23.1.1931. Reportage mit 1125 Bildern (alle digitalisiert) (LBS_MH02-08-0482, http://doi.org/10.3932/ethz-a-000259932)
Mittelholzer, Walter: Castell in Aleppo, 20.1.1925. Persienflug, 1924-1925. Reportage mit 249 Bildern (alle digitalisiert) (LBS_MH02-02-0018-AL-FL, http://doi.org/10.3932/ethz-a-000274468)
Mittelholzer, Walter: Fremdenverkehr vor der Sphinx, 1929. Kilimanjaroflug, 15.12.1929-28.2.1930. Reportage mit 548 Bildern (alle digitalisiert) (LBS_MH02-07-0161, http://doi.org/10.3932/ethz-a-000254079)
Vollständige Bildinformationen
Mittelholzer, Walter. In der mit Benzin- und Ölfässern gefüllten Kabine haben Captain Wood and Wegmann doch noch ein gemütliches Plätzchen gefunden, 1930/1931. Tschadseeflug, 2.12.1930-23.1.1931. Reportage mit 1125 Bildern (alle digitalisiert) (LBS_MH02-08-1113, http://doi.org/10.3932/ethz-a-000260134)
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.35016/ethz-cs-2822-en
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