Fotomuseum Winterthur

Fotomuseum Winterthur is a museum of photography located in the Mattenbach district of Winterthur, Switzerland. Established in 1993, the institution is dedicated to photography as an art form and document, and as a representation of reality. It serves as an internationally recognized center that examines the cultural, social, and political role of photography, exploring how the medium shapes views of the self and the world. The museum operates with a broad mandate, functioning as an art gallery for contemporary photography, a traditional museum for historical masters, and a cultural-historical institution for applied photography across fields like industry, architecture, and fashion.

The museum was founded in 1993 by the photographer George Reinhart, who was the nephew of the prominent Swiss art collector Oskar Reinhart. Building a collection of contemporary photography was established as a major cornerstone of the institution from its inception. A significant development occurred in autumn 2003, when Fotomuseum Winterthur partnered with Fotostiftung Schweiz to create a joint Center of Photography. This collaboration allowed for expanded premises and shared facilities. In 2015, Dr. Duncan Forbes established an innovative exhibition program titled SITUATIONS, which offers a unique perspective on photographic culture in the digital age. This program has been continued by the current director, Nadine Wietlisbach. In June 2023, the museum temporarily closed its exhibition spaces at Grüzenstrasse 44 to undertake a redevelopment and expansion project, with the renovation phase scheduled to last until spring 2025.

The collection focuses primarily on contemporary photography, comprising approximately 9,000 works from the 1960s to the present day. The holdings have grown through purchases, donations, and permanent loans from private patrons and foundations. Since 2003, the museum has presented parts of its collection annually in specially curated exhibitions, which are accompanied by a series of publications. The collection can also be viewed online. Beyond contemporary art photography, the museum's scope encompasses the work of 19th and 20th century masters, as well as cultural-historical and sociological applied photography from fields such as police work, medicine, industry, dam construction, and fashion. The museum also actively explores digital and networked image phenomena, including selfies, screenshots, memes, and artificially generated photographs.

The museum holds photographs by a wide range of international contemporary artists and photographers. Notable figures represented in the collection include Nobuyoshi Araki, Vanessa Beecroft, Lewis Baltz, Daniele Buetti, Larry Clark, Hans Danuser, David Goldblatt, Nan Goldin, Paul Graham, Andreas Gursky, Roni Horn, Axel Hütte, Loretta Lux, Urs Lüthi, Boris Mikhailov, Arnold Odermatt, Gilles Peress, Pipilotti Rist, Thomas Ruff, and Annelies Štrba. The institution also curates group exhibitions that combine photography and visual arts, such as the 2015 exhibition Beastly/Tierisch, curated by Duncan Forbes, which examined human-animal relations through the work of artists like Katja Novitskova, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Erik Kessels, Chris Marker, and Charlotte Dumas. Additionally, the SITUATIONS program has featured works by artists such as Ryan Trecartin, Constant Dullaart, Jon Rafman, Vito Acconci, and Mel Bochner. The museum also hosts the annual Plat(t)form forum for new European photography, which introduces forty-two emerging artists to the public and art critics.

Fotomuseum Winterthur and Fotostiftung Schweiz constitute the Center of Photography, occupying two buildings on opposite sides of Grüzenstrasse, at numbers 44 and 45, on the edge of the Winterthur city center. The building at Grüzenstrasse 44 is the former site of the Ganzoni company, now Sigvaris, and corresponds to the regional typology of traditional textile factories. It accommodates the museum's changing exhibition rooms, museum pedagogics rooms, offices, a workshop, and storage. The newer, larger building across the street features a nearly fully glazed ground floor and houses the exhibition rooms for the Fotomuseum Winterthur collection, alongside the Fotostiftung Schweiz. This shared building contains joint functions including a public specialist library with over 30,000 publications, seminar rooms, collection storage rooms, a museum shop, a lounge, and the museum bistro George. The combined exhibition area spans 1000 square meters, while the total usable area of the shared complex is between 3000 and 3500 square meters.

Fotomuseum Winterthur is located at Grüzenstrasse 44 and 45 in Winterthur, Switzerland. The museum is supported by the Stiftung Fotomuseum Winterthur, which is backed by the Verein Fotomuseum Winterthur, an association with 2500 members. While the exhibition spaces at Grüzenstrasse 44 are temporarily closed for renovation until May 2025, the Fotostiftung Schweiz remains open, and the Fotomuseum continues to engage the public through events and digital offerings. General admission to the combined Center of Photography is 14 Swiss Francs, with a reduced rate of 12 Swiss Francs available.