If there were only one word to describe Simone Kappeler’s oeuvre, it would be “stillness”. This stillness is a form of complete silence that marks more than a brief moment, more than arrested time. What I find so utterly captivating in Kappeler’s photographs is their sense of almost filmic duration.
Many who have written about Simone Kappeler speak of the timelessness that informs her photographs. It is as if the moment, the tiny slice of time, captured in these pictures has dropped out of the temporal continuum. Kappeler’s subject matter covers the entire spectrum of classical photography: landscape, interiors, still lifes, everyday scenes, portraits. The pictures are taken in the context of her surroundings at home and in the course of numerous travels. Although her work features a striking variety of styles, it shows a cogent overall coherence.
Many of the photographs are marked by a sense of flow. The subject matter shimmers; there are no distinct contours. Sometimes, it is as if we were witnessing a picture in the making, watching the magical process that has vanished since the rise of digital photography. It is as if we were in the dark room watching forms slowly taking shape on the paper; we see a landscape emerging, we can gradually identify things or people. The feeling that something is rising up out of the depths of the picture plane – actually a contradiction in terms – is often conveyed in Simone Kappeler’s photographs. It is not only that they are blurred; the photographs themselves seem unfinished, non-finito, as in the fine arts. They are in an incomplete state, constantly in a state of becoming.
Corinne Schatz, 2014
“When I see and take pictures, I lose all sense of time. Time is arrested, it stops: the moment you press the release, you no longer see. The aperture of the camera closes, the picture is taken in secret. It disappears mechanically. As soon as I press the release, I am acutely aware that this moment is past. What I observed withdraws unseen, moves away, becomes darker, sinks and dissol- ves. I am glad that I cannot see the photographs right away. It is enough to have the picture in mind and to know that it has left an impression on the film as a latent image that I can bring to light in the process of development.”
Simone Kappeler
Many who have written about Simone Kappeler speak of the timelessness that informs her photographs. It is as if the moment, the tiny slice of time, captured in these pictures has dropped out of the temporal continuum. Kappeler’s subject matter covers the entire spectrum of classical photography: landscape, interiors, still lifes, everyday scenes, portraits. The pictures are taken in the context of her surroundings at home and in the course of numerous travels. Although her work features a striking variety of styles, it shows a cogent overall coherence.
Many of the photographs are marked by a sense of flow. The subject matter shimmers; there are no distinct contours. Sometimes, it is as if we were witnessing a picture in the making, watching the magical process that has vanished since the rise of digital photography. It is as if we were in the dark room watching forms slowly taking shape on the paper; we see a landscape emerging, we can gradually identify things or people. The feeling that something is rising up out of the depths of the picture plane – actually a contradiction in terms – is often conveyed in Simone Kappeler’s photographs. It is not only that they are blurred; the photographs themselves seem unfinished, non-finito, as in the fine arts. They are in an incomplete state, constantly in a state of becoming.
Corinne Schatz, 2014
“When I see and take pictures, I lose all sense of time. Time is arrested, it stops: the moment you press the release, you no longer see. The aperture of the camera closes, the picture is taken in secret. It disappears mechanically. As soon as I press the release, I am acutely aware that this moment is past. What I observed withdraws unseen, moves away, becomes darker, sinks and dissol- ves. I am glad that I cannot see the photographs right away. It is enough to have the picture in mind and to know that it has left an impression on the film as a latent image that I can bring to light in the process of development.”
Simone Kappeler
Artworks
Articles
Media
Highlights
Recommendations
Collections
Shows
Market position
CV
Artworks by Simone Kappeler
CV
Solo exhibitions (Selection)
2021
Falling out of Time, Bildhalle, Zurich
Pflanzen im Licht, Museum of Nature, Thurgau, Switzerland
2018
Qui est Simone K?, Galerie Lumière des Roses, Paris
Fleur, Galerie widmertheodoridis, Switzerland
2017
Fleur, Musée La Filature, Mulhouse
Paris Photo: Cyanotypies, Galerie Lumière des Roses
2015
Analoge Verfremdungen, Galerie widmertheodoridis, Switzerland
X-ray and Infrared photographs, La Belle Juliette, Paris
2014
Through America, Photographs from the 1980s, De Buck Gallery, New York
Paris Photo: X-ray and Infrared photographs, Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris
2013
Rotverschiebung, neuer shed, Frauenfeld, Switzerland
Darkened Days, The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
America 1981, Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris
2011
Seile. Fluss. Nacht. Fotografien 1964–2011, Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen, Switzerland
2010
in between. Japan 09, semina rerum – Irène Preiswerk, Zurich (with Yamamoto Masao)
Awards and Grants (Selection)
2015
Studio grant New York of the canton of Thurgau
2014
Art price Konstanz
1996
Grant of the canton of Thurgau
1987
Price of the Jubiläumsstiftung der Schweizerischen
Bankgesellschaft
1984
Art price of the city of Frauenfeld, Switzerland
Publications and books (Selection)
2020 America 1981, Codax Publisher and Verlag, Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich
2011 Seile. Fluss. Nacht. Fotografien 1964–2011, exhibition catalogue, Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen
2010 dazwischen – in between. Japan 09, exhibition catalogue, semina rerum – Irène Preiswerk, Zurich
2003 Momente unscheinbarer Sensation, exhibition catalogue, Villa am Aabach
2001 Marvel: Das Geheimnis der unsichtbaren Strahlen, exhibition catalogue, semina rerum – Irène Preiswerk, Zurich
1998 Die Schatten der Dinge, exhibition catalogue, semina rerum – Irène Preiswerk, Zurich
Simone Kappeler: an der Grenze des Sichtbaren, exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Kartause Ittingen
1995 Diana. Photographien von Simone Kappeler, Frauenfeld
1990 Omphalos: Schildbuckel, Nabel, Mittelpunkt, Knopf, Schlussstein. Photographien von Simone Kappeler, Frauenfeld
Collections (Selection)
Banca del Gottardo, Lugano
Bank Vontobel, Zurich
Bayer, Leverkusen (Leihgabe im Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne)
Bundesamt für Kultur, Bern
Collection Neuflize Vie, Paris
Fotostiftung Schweiz
Kunstmuseum Thurgau
Kunstsammlung der Stadt Zürich
Kunstverein Schaffhausen, Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen
Sammlung Credit Suisse
Seminar Kreuzlingen
Stadt Frauenfeld
Sturzenegger Stiftung
Thurgauer Kantonalbank
UBS Art Collection
VW, Wolfsburg
2021
Falling out of Time, Bildhalle, Zurich
Pflanzen im Licht, Museum of Nature, Thurgau, Switzerland
2018
Qui est Simone K?, Galerie Lumière des Roses, Paris
Fleur, Galerie widmertheodoridis, Switzerland
2017
Fleur, Musée La Filature, Mulhouse
Paris Photo: Cyanotypies, Galerie Lumière des Roses
2015
Analoge Verfremdungen, Galerie widmertheodoridis, Switzerland
X-ray and Infrared photographs, La Belle Juliette, Paris
2014
Through America, Photographs from the 1980s, De Buck Gallery, New York
Paris Photo: X-ray and Infrared photographs, Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris
2013
Rotverschiebung, neuer shed, Frauenfeld, Switzerland
Darkened Days, The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
America 1981, Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris
2011
Seile. Fluss. Nacht. Fotografien 1964–2011, Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen, Switzerland
2010
in between. Japan 09, semina rerum – Irène Preiswerk, Zurich (with Yamamoto Masao)
Awards and Grants (Selection)
2015
Studio grant New York of the canton of Thurgau
2014
Art price Konstanz
1996
Grant of the canton of Thurgau
1987
Price of the Jubiläumsstiftung der Schweizerischen
Bankgesellschaft
1984
Art price of the city of Frauenfeld, Switzerland
Publications and books (Selection)
2020 America 1981, Codax Publisher and Verlag, Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich
2011 Seile. Fluss. Nacht. Fotografien 1964–2011, exhibition catalogue, Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen
2010 dazwischen – in between. Japan 09, exhibition catalogue, semina rerum – Irène Preiswerk, Zurich
2003 Momente unscheinbarer Sensation, exhibition catalogue, Villa am Aabach
2001 Marvel: Das Geheimnis der unsichtbaren Strahlen, exhibition catalogue, semina rerum – Irène Preiswerk, Zurich
1998 Die Schatten der Dinge, exhibition catalogue, semina rerum – Irène Preiswerk, Zurich
Simone Kappeler: an der Grenze des Sichtbaren, exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Kartause Ittingen
1995 Diana. Photographien von Simone Kappeler, Frauenfeld
1990 Omphalos: Schildbuckel, Nabel, Mittelpunkt, Knopf, Schlussstein. Photographien von Simone Kappeler, Frauenfeld
Collections (Selection)
Banca del Gottardo, Lugano
Bank Vontobel, Zurich
Bayer, Leverkusen (Leihgabe im Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne)
Bundesamt für Kultur, Bern
Collection Neuflize Vie, Paris
Fotostiftung Schweiz
Kunstmuseum Thurgau
Kunstsammlung der Stadt Zürich
Kunstverein Schaffhausen, Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen
Sammlung Credit Suisse
Seminar Kreuzlingen
Stadt Frauenfeld
Sturzenegger Stiftung
Thurgauer Kantonalbank
UBS Art Collection
VW, Wolfsburg
Free Magazine Subscription
Articles, interviews, shows & events. Delivered to your mailbox weekly.