Times Square, New York, 1953

Digital C-Print, 2013

Emil Schulthess is a classic representative of post-war Swiss photography. He preferred to photograph in colour and, thanks to Conzett & Huber’s highly developed printing technology, published many of his shots as spectacular colour images from the early 1950s onwards. 

 

It was surely the attention-seeking illuminated advertising that lured Schulthess to the busiest of all New York’s squares. What is most fascinating about this photograph though, is the casualness with which an everyday scene is captured, the closeness to the elegant couple and the sensual charisma with which the blonde woman holding a cigarette attracts the eye.