“Chalet” usually evokes a postcard image: a timber house in deep snow, remote and romantic. Patrick Lambertz photographed houses in Switzerland that do not match that cliché. According to the publisher, these are old houses that escaped the country’s long building and renovation boom. By photographing them against a winter backdrop, he removes them from their immediate context, emphasizes their individual character, and gives them what the publisher describes as an aura of poetry and irony. The book follows the typological tradition of Karl Blossfeldt and Bernd and Hilla Becher.
Hartmann Books published Chalets of Switzerland in 2022. The photographer is Patrick Lambertz. The texts are by Daniel Blochwitz, Edwin Huwyler, and Monika Twerenbold, and they appear in German and English. The book has 184 pages and 34 double-page pictures, measures 24 by 32 centimeters, and is hardcover with Swiss binding and foil stamping. The design is by SYB, The Hague. The publisher describes nature itself as the photo studio: cloudy skies and dense fog provide soft, low-contrast light, while snow-covered mountains and hills supply a neutral backdrop.
The publisher states that SYB developed a minimalist concept in which the houses steadily appear and disappear against the wintery paper white. The publisher also notes that the book received the Silver Medal at the German Photobook Award 2023 and that a limited edition is available. The publisher lists one ISBN, 978-3-96070-073-9; the catalogued language is German and English. The available evidence does not establish separate German and English editions or whether they would share an ISBN.
