Fernweh

Fernweh – The picturesque views and apparent stability of Switzerland have made it an elusive subject for contemporary photography. Over a five-year period (2014 to 2019), Cole has found a new way to see a country that has been the quintessential tourism experience for nearly two centuries. Fernweh muses on the German word for a desire to be elsewhere. Cole’s meditative and scrupulously composed work with color film evokes the hidden history of the Alpine nation as well as its highly polished terrain. Returning to Switzerland year after year, Cole shares the patience and soft palette of contemporary European photography, but the constructivist tension of these images is his own. With photographs taken in every corner of the country – from Vaud to Lugano to Graubünden – Fernweh creates a vision of Switzerland that, while largely devoid of human presence, is rich with human traces; nothing more than Cole’s distinct way of seeing.