The Early Years with Vivienne Oesch 2019 – 2021

I first saw Vivienne Oesch in 2018 – not in my studio, but on television. She was a contestant on Switzerland’s Next Topmodel, and from the very beginning, I thought she was one of the most interesting participants of the season. In fact, I was fairly convinced that she would win. I turned out to be wrong about that, but one thing remained: Vivienne had caught my attention.

And I remembered her.

The first opportunity to meet her in person came a little later during a cover shoot for Beautyforum Magazine. Make-up and styling were in the hands of Swiss champion make-up artist Vanessa Chizulu. Naturally, I took the opportunity of that first meeting to ask Vivi whether she would also be interested in working with me on other editorial shoots.

She was.

It wasn’t simply her looks that fascinated me. Of course, with her height, slender figure and distinctive face, she had many of the qualities associated with a fashion model. But what mattered even more to me was something else: her personality and her presence in front of the camera.

Some people change a room when they enter it. And some change an image the moment you point a camera at them. Vivienne could do both.

That first shoot very quickly led to more. Much more. Over the following years, we created more than 26 productions together. What began with individual shoots developed into a creative collaboration in which we repeatedly ventured into new territory.

That was precisely what made working together so exciting for me. We didn’t simply want to produce beautiful fashion and beauty images. With every new series, we could experiment, change direction and push boundaries. The looks became bolder, the concepts more elaborate, and some of our ideas considerably more experimental. Not every image had to be conventionally beautiful. It could attract attention, surprise and sometimes even challenge the viewer.

And those stories found their audience. Again and again, our editorials were picked up and published by magazines.

At the same time, Vivienne’s career was becoming increasingly international. She was travelling more and more, and something that had once been quite easy became increasingly difficult: finding a date when we could both be in the same place. A planned shoot could quickly clash with an opportunity in Milan or Paris – and naturally, those professional opportunities came first.

Perhaps that made our later productions together even more special.

Our most recent production eventually took place not in Zurich, but in my new studio in Taufkirchen, Germany. When I look back at the images from those early years today, I see far more than a series of fashion and beauty shoots.

I see a journey.

For Vivienne, those years were part of the beginning of a career that would take her far beyond Switzerland. For me, they were equally important. Through our collaboration, I discovered new forms of expression in my photography. I was able to experiment, learn and realise ideas that helped me develop my own photographic style.

We both followed our own paths – and for several years, those paths repeatedly crossed in front of my camera.

More than 26 productions later, there is one thing above all that remains to be said:

Thank you, Vivi.