”The Eye of Love”
In 1952, Swiss photographer René Groebli and his wife Rita went on their honeymoon to Paris and the South of France. He photographed extensively during this trip, and only two years later he selected 25 photographs for a narrative photo-essay entitled Das Auge der Liebe (The Eye of Love), which he self-published as an artist book.
René Groebli’s intention was not to document, but to create associations. As a photographer he aimed to make emotions visible, to capture an atmosphere, to preserve moments and to express happiness. During their honeymoon Groebli photographed more than just what was visible to the eye. He caught moods, closeness, fleetingness, intimacy, sensuality … and his love for his wife Rita. With The Eye of Love, he created a photographic poem - a work of timeless poetry.
Initially, he did not plan to publish the photographs, as this was a very personal and purely artistic work. However, two years later, René Groebli began working on the layout of a book, selecting and juxtaposing photographs and using a white page to symbolise the passing of a day within the chronology. Rather than simply placing one image after another, Groebli aimed to create a whole – the visual form of a narrative. He condensed the photographs taken during the trip to give the impression that the The Eye of Love records the passage of a single day.
Das Auge der Liebe was published in 1954 in an edition of 700 copies in German and 300 copies in English (The Eye of Love). However, even before its publication, Das Auge der Liebe was considered as quite scandalous in Switzerland. It was not the photographs themselves that were considered scandalous, but rather what was implied between the pictures: the associative, the invisible, and the physicality of love.
During the 1950s in Switzerland, photography focused on reportage and the pursuit of dispassionate reality and objectivity. In this context, in December 1954, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung labelled Das Auge der Liebe as a social testimony, describing “…the course of a day in the life of a girl in the city”. In contrast, the influential American U.S. Camera Annual wrote in its 1955 edition: “The Eye of Love is a tender photo-essay on a photographer’s love for a woman.”
The American photographer Edward Steichen, curator at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, was impressed by Groebli’s series Das Auge der Liebe. During Steichen’s research for the renowned exhibition The Family of Man, he travelled to Zurich in 1953. Together with Robert Frank, Steichen visited the 26-year-old René Groebli and acquired the Seated Nude from the series Das Auge der Liebe for MoMA’s renown photographic collection. Groebli was also invited to participate in the 1955 exhibition The Family of Man. With a photograph of dancing couples in motion Groebli was represented at this legendary exhibition, which toured the world with great success.
Groebli‘s photographer colleagues and friends, Jakob Tuggener and Robert Frank, greatly influenced his photographic work in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He was impressed by the complexity of Tuggener’s images and the way he created photographic series. Groebli was also inspired by the subjectivity of Robert Frank’s work, which led to his own subjective poetic language. His intention was to capture the intangible, such as emotions – or movement, dynamism and speed like in one of his other artist books Magie der Schiene (Rail Magic). Created in 1949, this seminal photo-essay features a mixture of smoke, smell, countryside, romanticism and mood, and turned the French steam train into a symbol of power.
The photographic discourse between artists and their romantic partners was nothing new in the 1950s. One famous pioneer was Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) who met his future wife, Georgia O’Keeffe, in the spring of 1916 - and shortly afterwards he began taking her portraits over a span of thirty years. Similarly, Paul Strand (1890–1976) took impressive portraits of his wife Rebecca in the 1920s. And the American photographer Harry Callahan (1912–1999), was - influenced by his encounter with Alfred Stieglitz - portraying his wife Eleanor Knapp for the first time in 1942. Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand and Harry Callahan explored their loved counterpart through their lenses; their intention was to preserve moments and situations and to use photography to display their relationships with their wives. In their endeavours, repetition and variation were important elements, as was the passage of time. The portraits of their wives reflect their inner and outer changes, illuminating the various layers of life over the course of years.
However, Vision of Love is a visual journal of a honeymoon; the intensity of a temporally short and emotional situation that is reflected in the photographs. The sequences capture the beauty of movement, play with silhouettes, muted light, deep shadows, and the contrast between focused and unfocused, veiling and unveiling. They play with innuendo and association. Still lifes, the interior of a hotel room, a view through the window and even a scene in a neighbouring café can be discerned, but the focal point is always Groebli’s beloved Rita.
Vision of Love is a body of work full of intimacy and timeless poetry. A publication that was way ahead of its time.
© 2025, Birgit Filzmaier