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The architectural photography of Heinrich Helfenstein (1946–2020) is grounded foremost in an understanding of language. A trained linguist, his approach to image-making was shaped by semiology and post-structuralism. Helfenstein’s point of entry to architecture, as Aldo Rossi’s teaching assistant at ETH in the 1970s, was also the start of his career as architecture photographer. Some of his earliest photographs are also some of the most familiar, having been used to illustrate Rossi’s widely circulated Scientific Autobiography. The delicate and absorbing dialogue between images and words that resulted from this collaboration influenced generations of architects, whilst paving the way to an extensive photographic oeuvre. By the time of his retirement in the early 2010s, Helfenstein was one of the most celebrated Swiss architecture photographers, having worked with Diener & Diener, Peter Märkli, Peter Zumthor, Meili Peter, Gigon Guyer, Burkhalter & Sumi, and Valerio Olgiati, as well as artists Hans Josephsohn, Per Kirkby, and Meret Oppenheim among many others. Due to his approach, his photography not only helped disseminate Swiss architecture in the late 20th century, but actively shaped its discourse, particular its interfaces with art.

Ausgewählte Literatur

• Heinrich Helfenstein, Synopsis der Architektur in der Schweiz nach 1950, in: archithese, 3 (1982), Nr. 1, S. 7–11.
• Aldo Rossi, Wissenschaftliche Selbstbiographie (Übersetzung), Bern 1988.
• Heinrich Helfenstein, Aufnahmen im Mittelland (Fotoessay), in: Werk, Bauen + Wohnen, 77 (1990), Nr. 5, S. 36–41.
• Fredi Ehrat / Heinrich Helfenstein, Das Kino Studio 4. Eine Dokumentation über eine Raumgestaltung von Roman Clemens, Zürich 1992.
• Zeit festhalten. Heinrich Helfenstein im Gespräch mit Tibor Joanelly und Roland Züger, in: Werk, Bauen + Wohnen, 99 (2012), Nr. 10, S. 16–23.
• Heinrich Helfenstein, Zeitebenen, in: Werk, Bauen + Wohnen, 100 (2013), Nr. 12, S. 28.
• Marianne Burkhalter / Christian Sumi, Heinrich Helfenstein 1946–2020. Nachruf, in: Werk, Bauen + Wohnen, 107 (2020), Nr. 12, S. 51.