Returning Places
The collages in Blends of Memories are built from photographs taken at the same Alpine viewpoints across days to even years. This is a selection of those source images — the long study behind each composition. Some of these photographs feed specific collages directly; others are part of viewpoints I'm still returning to.
The Matterhorn
The most photographed mountain in the Swiss Alps. I approach it from different angles to find what's still left to see, what can still surprise me. Stellisee at first light, Riffelsee in late summer, Gornergrat in deep winter. The mountain hides and reappears with the weather — clouds, light, snow. The point is to be there often enough to notice the difference.
The Rigi
Fifteen minutes from home to Mettmenstetten, twenty-five to Hinteralbis. Which means I've been there in every condition the year offers — spectacular sunsets and unremarkable gray afternoons alike. After uncounted visits the mountain stops being scenery and starts being an acquaintance. Or a material to work with.
Around Schwyz
The mountains around the town of Schwyz hold two of my most-returned-to viewpoints — the Fallenflue cliff and the wider panorama looking across the Rigi massif to the Urner Alps. The two Blends of Memories collages from this stretch — The Fallenflue series and Schwyz III — come from years of those evenings.
Ferpècle
Ferpècle is a remote valley I came to slowly, and that I now use to test what a viewpoint can hold. Less famous than the named peaks, which is part of what I'm there for. The shapes here have stayed in my head longer than most better-known viewpoints have. Which is why I keep coming back. The e-bike makes a long valley reachable in an evening.
Obersee
Obersee is a small alpine lake that mirrors whatever the sky is doing. The cycle here moves fast — snowdrops in February, autumn yellows by October — which means each visit catches a different version of the same composition. A collage from this lake is in the works.
Mount Pilatus
Visible from most of central Switzerland and almost impossible to see fresh, because everyone has already photographed it. I shoot it mainly from the lowlands now — the orchards near Küssnacht, the foothills near Weggis — looking up at the silhouette rather than chasing the summit. The mountain sits in the background rather than as a main subject, which is closer to how I actually see it every day.
A view from Nax
I lived above this valley for a month, working remotely, and the photographs from here happened in the gaps — between the toothbrush and the first coffee, on the lunch walk, from the balcony at dinner. No other valley I know collects weather as densely as this one or rearranges it as fast. I'll be back this summer.
All of these viewpoints feed, or will feed, works in Blends of Memories. The collages are the long answer to what the photographs keep asking. For more landscape and my source materials, you can check the archival gallery: In the Swiss Alps.