I had arrived in Lucerne that day in mid August in 1964 with an expose about the position of camera magazine in the world of photography; the future of photography through the sixties and seventies and the possible and necessary direction the magazine should go. One week before they proposed I accept the task of Editing and Art Directing Camera magazine. The Publisher, the President, the Director and the owner of the C. J. Bucher Publishing Company in Lucerne, Alice Bucher, requested my Expose the following week. With the completion of my expose I requested the follow up of my working papers. Bucher publishing was then the largest printing and publishing house in Central Switzerland with the largest circulation newspaper called the Luzerner Neueste Nachrichten, and some small house magazines and advertising and publishing facilities.
This was the year 1965 and spent almost a year in the city of Basel working for an Advertising Agency called Jean Reiwald. During that year I designed and was printing a book, The New Matadores at the house of C.J.Bucher.I was almost finshed with Europe.
How did I get to Europe and why was I here?
Her proposal to edit camera or Art Direct it as it was called at the time came as a total surprise as my only concern was to return to the USA and get back to designing in the American fashion. My problems in Basel with the working permit made my stay in Switzerland unpleasant and complicated. I did not think that Lucerne would be any different but when I asked for the permit she immediately called Bundesrat Von Moos in Bern and his reply was under the circumstances that there was no other working craft in Switzerland for the job he could expedite the working permit and visa if her directors thought I could save the magazine from it's insecure plight. Up to this period of time the 43 year old Camera Magazine never exceeded a circulation of 9300 copies world wide in three separate language editions. A hard task lay ahead in both the editorial, and the advertising / subscription departments
Regard the subscription and newsstand sales, became a new venture in my capacity of Editor. I succumbed to the sales or advertising department and decided to make things work. How and who to approach for ad pages were never thought about and now we could get the subscription up and the newsstands sales up to increase the page revenue. I introduced newsstand sales in the USA with Acme in New York and in 1968 we had 30,000 copies on the USA news stands.I promised Mme Bucher an 8% increase in subscription sales in 11/2 years and by the end of the first year we were up to 20% increase.We stayed consistent in keeping above 20,000 to 25,000 subcriptions in three language editions and I slowly convinced libraries and institutions to get from 2-5 year subscriptions. Sometime in the early seventies we reached a high of 50,000 circulation and had it approved.I was able to maintain some important advertisers continuously through the years in a prestige style of advertising rather than the hard sell. As the Ringier Company took over one was aware they did not like the cultural aspect of this magazine and never tried to help in advertising or in subscription.They thought it would fade if they did nothing. Nothing of the sort and therefore put camera to rest in 1981, just short of its sixtieth year.Mme Bucher who never wanted to sell the publication with the printing plant was dismayed and furious as the subscribers when camera ceased existence.
On this Wednesday afternoon in August, 1965,as I sat in the restaurant De La Paix she came to my table to announce I have been chosen by the directors as the new Editor in Chief of Camera Magazine. At this point we discussed the salary and how and where I would be working. My first request was for her to totally assist me for the first three months in my endeavours as I was foreign and did not know the people I would be dealing with and of course a foreign language could cause a handicap with the fact that there may be resentment in my choice by the directors. I immediately added she may become as she wishes after the three months and resume the publisher and editor relationship. Actually our argument and confrontation took place on exactly the day after the three month truce was over. Of course in between she agreed and gave me wonderful support and assistance in the first three months. It was an exciting three months.
The questions that arose after taking over was the position of camera magazine in the world of photography; the future of photography through the sixties and seventies and the possible and necessary direction the magazine should go. One week before they proposed I accept the task of Editing and Art Directing Camera magazine. The Publisher, the President, the Director and the owner of the C. J. Bucher Publishing week. With the completion of my Company in Lucerne, Alice Bucher, requested my Expose the following expose I requested the follow up of my working papers. Bucher publishing was then the largest printing and publishing house in Central Switzerland with the largest circulation newspaper called the Luzerner Neueste Nachrichten, and some small house magazines and advertising and publishing facilities.
Of course in between she agreed and gave me wonderful support and assistance in the first three months.which of course she did It was an exciting three months.of hard work and cooperation and exactly to the day of the trhree month truce she began a hefty argument regard the content of camera.It did not last long as she was one of the few people in life that do not hold malice aftewr a disagreement.My next step was to move to Lucerne and get my belongings from storage in Rotterdam and Mme Bucher woukld look after the living quarters in Lucerne.
Lets go back to 1963 as I came to visit Europe and the Landi in Ouchy by Laussane. It was a marvelous exhibition and a wonderful introduction to Switzerland.I had became aquainted with Switzerland in 1955 and 1956 while stationed with the Us Army forxces stationed in Germany across the boarder.
While on TDY(temporary duty) in Stuttgart withnbthe US Army a colleague and I would drive every other weekend or so from Stuttgart to Geneva to visit his friend in the University of Geneva or Bern.I had decided to spend my time in Lucerne and he would drop me off on the Muhlenplatz where I overnighted in the Hotel Gambrinus.On Sunday evening late or on Monday morning very early he would come to fetch me and we would drive on to Stuttgart.I would spend most of my time walking aboutv the city and spending time in my hotel room continuing on writing a novel and short stories that begun in Fort Riley Kansas some months prior.
Now almost ten years after in August 1963,I am invited by a german photographer by the name of Horst Baumann to meet his publisher, Alice Bucher in Lucerne at the publishing house after my trip to the National Exhibition in Ouchy. Newly married and driving up to Lucerne was a real pleasure without realizing what the future had in store.
My first meeting with Alice Bucher took place in her office ,one flight up above the entrance to the publishing house on the Zürichstrasse and the Löwenplatz. It was an antiquated building which previously was a beer hall and now housed a printing company and printing factory.It was popsitioned between a smal movie house at one end and the bakery Heine at the other. It was built into a massive which housed the national insurance company SUVA way aboive and was across the place form the Boubourky Panorma, next to the Glacier Garden and the famous Lion memorial. All of which was Lucerne's touristic attraction for almost a century.
Meeting her was a delight and it is always fascinating to meet a person after hearing all the positive and negative aspects of their life. Present at the meeting was Horst Baumann with his Racing book Maquette and Niklaus Flueler, the nephew of Frau Bucher. A few days before I had created the layout and system to design this particular book the Neue Matadore. Mme Bucher was impressed and gave the order for me to create a chapter and give it to the printer so we can have something tangible for the Book Fair in Frankfurt that coming autumn.This of course was anew concept for me presenting a finished printed version to the co publishers at the Book Fair. Alice Bucher had published to this date Greece, her first book,The Nile by Eliot Elisofon, first Gravure color tip in photographs,Moments Preserved , Irving Penn, observations by Richard Avedon and Nothing Personal by Richard Avedon all in co-publishing adventures with various languages.
Switzerland was known,since the Second World War,for its precision in both watches and the printing industry. Sheet fed gravure was the ultimate quality printing system at this time although Skira produced beautiful Art books in letter press and became the standard of the art book printing.Conzett and Huber were the darlings in the Gravure printing to most of Europe although both France,and Italy were doing beautiful work.This new challenge for Alice Bucher became her new direction and she wanted to show she could be equal if not better than Conzett in Zürich.Her intuitive idea about Photographic books with photographic themes.was a very unique venture.With Romeo Martinez,her Editor of Camera,she was introduced to the photographers on both sides of the ocean.They were mostly European born and working for Life, Look, Esquire and Look magazines and Stern, Paris-Match and others in Europe.Her motto;To produce the best you must work with the best. Her machines were ready and her staff were able to maintain the quality of sheet fed gravure in competition with the best of the world.WE must not forget she hired the director from printing at Conzett and Huber, Herr Starke to come and direct her plant.The best is what she wanted and usually got it!The art style of reproduction enabled her to win the hearts of the older and younger generations of photographers. All wanted their work to be printed like camera and the books from Lucerne.Horst Baumann, John Phillips,Henri Cartier Bresson,Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Lord Snowdon,David Bailey, Ernst Haas, Fritz Henle to name a few all had their books printed and published by C.J. Bucher in Lucerne.
While working with camera in the first ten years, I became more and more familiar with the European printing and methods.With the help of the pre-and post-printing departments I was able to better the system and the look of camera considerably.year after year.In a short time there were enumerable requests from the younger generation of photographers who wanted to be printed on the pages of camera.They journeyed to the offices on the Zürichstrasse to show their work and ideas for books.We must consider that Sheet-fed-gravure was the ultimate printing process at the time for reproduction of photography.
The deep tones and soft edges of picture movement or a color blur was only possible with the gravure system.When camera reproduced the Ernst Haas bull fighter series in movement that appeared in Life simultaneously in the 1950's color printing in gravure became the real possibility to reproduce photography the way it should be.As Dr. Land saw the camera issue of the Dandies by Marie Cosindas in the later '60's, he was convinced he had found the printing technique for his color Polaroid System.Later he allowed me to create the first and only visually printed document with unseen reproductions on the History of Polaroid Photography and Film in 1974.It was also a premier as he had just introduced the SX 70 camera and film and it was included in the camera issue.I myself was fascinated with my new endeavor and tried to bring the best of photography with the best of printing. Alice Bucher's motto was contagious.Thanks to the printers and their understanding we were able to achieve maybe some of the best reproduction quality in this century. Thus lasted ten years, that is,until 1974 when I was told sheet fed gravure is too slow and too expensive and will be replaced by lithographic offset in the next years.The Ringier Publisher and printing Company from Zoffingen bought the C.J.Bucher Company and was on a success march with their Boulevard concept and quality was their least interest at the present.I had convinced them of duplex printing in Offset and they gave me three months to develop an economic duplex system that would not disappoint my readers and viewers.The same Gravure printers and separation department worked close with me to fulfill my wish of the ultimate duplex.In August and September in 1974 I was able to present the new camera look with a duplex with 2 color duplex screen and not the familiar 4 color screen system that reproduced rosettas in a moire pattern.Ir also enabled us to print a larger screen and work faster than the 4 color screen system.It was successful and all were pleased and the last bastion of sheet fed gravure said goodbye to photography and the new future began.We must not forget since 1967 and the oncoming of Photo Typesetting with Photo Offset would by 1974 become the death of Lead setting typography and the onset of the scanner and digital reproduction facilities that seemed to fit into the new Adligenswil Printing Plant.It also enabled them to think of the future and digital satelite transference of text and picture and eventually complete pages in digital format.
The time after 1974 did not change the impetus and the excitement of photography and photographers in camera. It was still the magazine that sought the new waves of photography and rediscovered the past, uncovering the forgotten talents of the last one hundred years. Shortly after the change from Gravure to offset I had seen the dismantling of the single color gravure machines piece by piece, machine by machine put into large containers inscribed ship to Poland. They had been moved to the new factory in Adligenswil from Lowenplatz Lucerne and now taken apart and removed to make place for the new speedy 2 and 5 color offset machines. This was the newest of the new and Held laser scanning for flat and transparency images and a newer automated color correction litho separation system.
As the last gravure machine left the factory area, I remembered the afternoon a few years ago in the Roto Gravure Machine room where Mme Bucher displayed her recent purchased 19th century tapestries in their remarkable Gobelin quality to some interested clients.Since she knew of my own tapestry background ,she had asked me to participate in some of the explanation.It was the first time one could see these magnificent weavings as they were shown up till now only in reproduction.
Our relationship became close, but only in reference to business, printing and publishing.She always called me Porter and I in return called her Madam Bucher.Her Patronizing style of protocol and etiquette remained that way even after we both had been away from the camera.One has only to look into her past and realize this Locomotive engineer's daughter who had married an important publisher of the social class,causing him to divorce his social inclined wife-did not really allow this young woman to become ever a member of the Lucerne society.. Never accepting that "Secretary" during all the years she developed the most important publishing consortium in all of central Switzerland, she in her own way never lived down the so called mistreatment she received regardless of her success in the industry Nationally and Internationally.She remained bitter and often taken advantage of by her family and friends. Today on the sixth of August,1991.Alice Bucher was buried. The ceremony at the Hof Kirche with music from Mozart and the burial in the Friedenthal went according to her decisive,careful planning.just days before.But at that very day a strange phenomena occurred. Her ultimate life long competition was the Vaterland and The Tagblatt of Lucerne, both party politics newspapers announced their demise and fusion that very day of her funeral. Even this she was not allowed to enjoy.She also passed away just months before she was to preside at the vernissage of camera magazine at the Zürich Kunst Museum on 31 October, 1991.Her old paper the LNN still reigns in Lucerne as the biggest under the Ringier Company.Naturally her old staff is no longer there as most have retired or passed away.Even at the funeral the sparseness of those attending had to do with very few of her family or generation is still alive.Regard her integrity in publishing; whether the new generation of journalists have the national or international know-how that she alone acquired is somewhat questionable.It was noticeable in the last twelve years how the local information increased and the national and international dwindled. Whether the success lends itself to the information center and the advertising department in Zürich or the editorial department is questionable as well.As she left in 1974, she did not realize the TV cabelization which began in central Switzerland and Bulle,near Fribourg and later spreading throughout the entire country, was the new problem to come to local and national publishing.In 1973 as Lucerne was cabled color TV was the new attraction. Thus began the decent of revenue and subscription for all of Switzerland's newspapers and periodicals.She never had children with C.J.Bucher or afterward and most likely kept her News Paper and Camera as her beloved children.
NOTES; stories to follow
Svetlana story
Pope and Bishop
Pio dies in Lucerne not Rome
Duane Michaels and the flying book
Bucher, Alice
*27.3.1898 Olten,+1.8.1991 Luzern, kath., von Mümliswil-Ramiswil. Tochter des Lokomotivführers Arnold Haefeli. [&] 1930 (rbio!)Carl Josef Bucher. Handelsdiplom, ab 1926 Sekr. im C.J. Bucher Verlag in Luzern. Nach dem Schlaganfall ihres Mannes übernahm sie 1941 die Leitung der Graph. Anstalt C.J. Bucher AG und baute sie kontinuierl. aus (1968 Verlegung der Druckerei nach Adligenswil). B. fungierte als Herausgeberin der "Luzerner Neuesten Nachrichten" und versch. Zeitschriften, darunter der Fotozeitschrift Camera, sowie zahlreicher Bild- und Dokumentationsbände. 1973 verkaufte sie die Firma der Ringier AG. Mit einer Spende von nahezu einer 1 Mio. Fr.finanzierte sie 1988 den Projektwettbewerb für ein neues Kultur- und Kongresszentrum der Stadt Luzern.