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Iwan E. Hugentobler (1886-1972), Artist, lithogragher, photographer

Iwan E. Hugentobler, the Zurich artist, painter, graphic artist and photographer. On 2 July 1936 he traveled to the Balkans to begin a photograghic journal, involving six thousand kilometers in nine countries.

The Balkans was then in Western Europe, little known to tourists. Hugentobler was fascinated by the strange world that he found. With the view of the painter, he photographed alongside landscapes especially people : slow sheaves women in Dalmatia, ice seller in Albania, porters in the port of Salonika, Roma children in Bulgaria, festively dressed youth in Romania. Hugentobler's photographs are among the few of the Balkans in this period there. Iwan E. Hugentobler attended the drawing school of industrial and commercial St.Gallen. It was then a designer embroidery company. He saw active service in World War I in the cavalry. After this he began a period of studies of humans, animals, nature and architecture. In his graphic work, the horse was his main topic. He worked many years for the magazine "The Trooper". From 1920 on he lives in Zurich, where he died at the age of 86 years in 1972.

Contents:

Iwan E. Hugentobler (1886–1972) Iwan E. Hugentobler (1886-1972) Zeichner, Grafiker, Maler und Fotograf Draftsman, graphic artist, painter and photographer By Anna Pia Maissen

The History of the Balkans in the interwar period By Nada Bosÿkovska Nada Bosÿkovska

6000 km through the Balkans Photographs by Iwan E. Hugentobler

Iwan E. Hugentobler (1886–1972) By Anna Pia Maissen : From: Iwan E. Hugentobler (1886-1972) by Anna Pia Maissen:

The Balkan tour in 1936

Hugentobler decided to visit the Balkan countries for a closer inspection after his visit to the Hungarian Puszta in 1935. On 2 July 1936 he broke into Hittnau near Zurich with his friend, the weaving owner Emil Spörri, and Edwin Hoffman, a riding colleagues Weisslingen, fitted to a three-week Balkan trip with the Ford V8 of Spörri and the then most modern camera, the Leica III. The three men planned to do approximately 6000 km on their journey through the former Yugoslavia through Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Czechoslovakia.

Hugentobler was preparing seriously for the trip, he brought a lot of information about the contributing countries and was planning to travel an exact route. During the trip he put notes on all the travel destinations and described each photograph. The route led through the Dolomites to Trieste and Rijeka, then along the Dalmatian coast and Montenegro. Next to Albania: a country in the ass, as shown by Hugentobler photographs. From there it went through northern Greece to Thessaloniki, which fascinated him especially the lively port. Bulgaria was the next stop: the capital Sofia, the famous Rose Valley. The Danube crossing at Ruse led the travelers to Romania, where Hugentobler photographed a lot, especially in Transylvania. After Slovakia they came to Prague, then Austria and Germany and around the 25th July returned to Switzerland.

About the actual course of the trip itself, we do not know much. Hugentobler kept no diary, and all information that we have comes from his brief descriptions of the daily journal, which he endowed with distance in kilometers, and the captions of his photos. On average, laid back, the three Swiss traveled around 250 kilometers per day: They spent only one day in Sofia. The one-day stay in Sofia seems to have been not exactly planned. Due to the hardships of the journey Edwin Hofmann became sick on 14 July and Hugentobler noted: "Mr Hofmann is prostrate sick ..." And the next day: ". Rest of trip without our friend Hofmann, who, beginning as soon as he is prepared, will return home by plane." Then Hugentobler and Spörri continue the journey. From notes we learn further that the Swiss wherever possible visited beaches in Split, Dubrovnik and Thessaloniki. The travelers spent the night at the best hotels in town. The night in the Hotel Continental, Tirana Hugentobler commented succinctly: "primitive, but good hotel in Tirana." A city tour was always about interesting encounters with people. In Split, they visited a friend, the "engineer Wachter" and "his ladies" who lived in an apartment overlooking the picturesque harbor. It is striking that the three Swiss got along so well with the local police and military. In Turnovo (Bulgaria), they became friends over lunch at the Hotel Prince Boris with a captain named Ognjaev, in a hotel in Tirana, Albania with a lieutenant. At the border crossing between Albania and Greece in Bilishtë they drank liquor with the police. Finally, Hugentobler says: "It was an unforgettable trip."

Hugentobler images show both the fascination of photographers from the local people and the landscapes and the circumstances of the trip. The long route passed over dusty and gravely roads and over rough passes and rivers. River crossings could not always be bridged. They often had to be loaded onto a ferry boat. We learn indirectly that the three friends from time to time relied on their sightseeing guides, for example in Shkodra. Several shots show Spörri and Hofmann in lively conversation with locals. cigarettes seem to have been even then a universal means of contact. So Spörri can be seen for example with an Albanian shepherd, which he lights a cigarette.

The camera belonged to Iwan E. Hugentobler and was one of his working tools. With it, he photographed not only in all his travels, but in general when he was away and was taking time for his love for sketching. Many of his paintings and graphics created from such recordings. He used his camera like a sketch pad, the viewfinder as a brush.

His son Hans Rudolf Hugentobler said: "Iwan E. Hugentobler was proud of his family and used his camera at every opportunity. He had a firm grasp of the painted or drawn image and was, so to speak, just as good as a photographer.