Dr Michael Pritchardmember of the Royal Photographic Society we learn of the death of Michael Auer. He writes:
Michel Auer, one of the most important collectors and dealers of cameras and photography, historian and defender of photography, has died at the age of 91. Auer will be best known for his books on cameras and, more recently, for his Foundation based in Hermance, Switzerland, which exhibited photographs and cameras from his collection and was introduced to the public through exhibitions and public events.
Michel was born in Zurich in 1933. After school, he completed an apprenticeship as an advertising photographer in Zurich. Returning from Swiss military service, in 1955 he created an advertising photography studio in Geneva. In 1958, he obtained a federal master’s degree in photography.
In 1960, he created the Grand laboratory in Geneva, specializing in large format photo enlargements in black and white and color, which he directed until 1975. He abandoned advertising photography in 1961 and devoted himself to collecting cameras. photography and writing books on the subject where his own photography presented cameras as beautiful objects in their own right. In the 1970s, the photography market was still evolving and Auer was able to acquire important cameras through auctions and especially in markets where rare objects were little known. He was also able to source cameras directly from their manufacturers and he acquired all spare parts and incomplete Compass cameras from Le Coultre in Switzerland.
In 1976, he created a stand at Pucres de Clignancourt in Paris, with Michèle Ory specializing in cameras and photographs. He married Michèle in 1980 and the two formed a strong partnership united in their photographic interests and activities.
Michel created three, perhaps more, important camera collections which formed the basis of other museums. In 1973, Auer sold his first collection to the Antwerp Museum, today known as FoMU. The collection focused on the development of cameras and the technical history of photography and included iconic cameras as well as rarities and key exhibition pieces. Since then, the FoMu collection has been supplemented by other collections, notably that of Agfa-Gevaert.
The second sale took place in the early 1990s at the JCII Camera Museum in Tokyo, Japan. The museum had a significant collection of Japanese products acquired through its own activities but was weak in front of Western cameras. Auer’s collection added important cameras from the history of photography and expanded with cameras from the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe.
His third collection was his last personal collection and includes important cameras as well as rarities. This now falls under his Foundation.
Michel’s first books were essentially catalogs of his collection(s) and most likely served as an awareness catalog to support a sale. The first were made at a time when there were very few other books on camera history aimed at collectors. The first Collection Michel Auer appeared in 1972 and ultimately consisted of three volumes. It was a must-have catalog for collectors and auction houses, aiding in identification and dating at a time when reference materials were limited.
Son Illustrated History of the Camera from 1975 was the first book on cameras, beautifully illustrated with Auer’s camera photographs, and it presented a useful history of the camera describing many rarities from his collection. Michel also collaborated with another collector, Eaton S Lothrop, to produce a book on disguised cameras, well illustrated and benefiting from Lothrop’s extensive research. With Michèle, he produced an important history of amateur cinema cameras. Not all of his books appeared in English, but they all remained key references, even if they are often not as well known as they should have been, before the Internet.
Later, as Auer focused on photography, he and Ory produced a CD-Rom resource in 1997 containing biographical information on photographers based on the Printed Encyclopedia, and the resource is now available online.
In 1984, the Auers opened a photography center at Grütli in Geneva and began organizing photography exhibitions. He then moved to the BAC contemporary art building and finally in March 2009 with Michèle, Michel created a Foundation which allowed him to exhibit his collection of photographs as well as objects related to photography. He regularly organized photography exhibitions, lectures and had his own publications program. A partnership with the city of Montpellier which could have hosted the collection and the foundation on a long-term basis came to nothing. The Auers collection now includes an extensive collection of cameras, some 21,000 books and 50,000 images. As Etienne Dumont pointed out in his assessment of Auer, the future of the collection remains uncertain.
Michel Auer was married to Françoise Guérin, from whom he divorced in 1968, then to Michèle Auer-Ory in 1980 until his death. He had three children with his first wife, Martine, Laurence and Georges Nicéphore.
Michel died on October 22, 2024.
Dr Michael Pritchard FRPS // Consultant // Royal Photographic Society
The Royal Photographic Society, RPS House, 337 Paintworks, Arnos Vale, Bristol, BS4 3AR, UK
www.rps.org
