Beat Jost – The Best of Worlds

Description

The Bernese photographer Beat Jost (1936-2026) was one of the most influential advertising and industrial photographers of his time and collaborated with many leading Bernese companies (such as the department store Loeb, Wander-Ovomaltine, Vidmar, IBA, and Pierrot-Friola). His photographs offer a nuanced panorama of the universe of object photography and advertising from the 1960s to 1980s. Ubiquitous in catalogs, brochures, and advertisements, his works reflect (like an echo to the novel The Best of Worlds) a Switzerland increasingly marked by consumption and prosperity. It was during this period that the consumer society as we know it today was structured: supermarkets, streets, parking lots, urban areas, and growing urbanization profoundly transformed living spaces and lifestyles. Economic growth gave rise to new needs, and with them, an ever-increasing demand. Quantity, availability, and profit maximization have become dominant paradigms. Beat Jost's images reflect this profound social and economic change through carefully staged photographic compositions, mirroring a period in full effervescence. Quotes from Aldous Huxley's novel The Best of Worlds, published in 1932, serve as a critical warning and as a backdrop to the emergence of mass consumption. From today's perspective, these images are perceived differently: they are no longer primarily seen as advertising media (especially since many of the represented products have disappeared from the market), but as souvenir images and time capsules that evoke both individual and collective memory. The selection of images presented here focuses on consumer objects, fashion, and interiors. Anchoring these advertising products in their social context is of particular interest and highlights the perception of the role of women, embodied in the staging of the universe of consumer goods of the time. The exhibition aims to emphasize how these products transcend their simple status as objects to become part of a social narrative. What do these objects tell us about a past that is still present, and what promises of prosperity, progress, and consumption shape our current society?

Highlights

• Exhibition dedicated to photographer Beat Jost
• Works from the 1960s to 1980s
• Reflection on consumer society

General Information

The exhibition presents the works of Beat Jost, an influential advertising photographer of his time. It explores the evolution of object photography and advertising in Switzerland, while highlighting the social and economic transformations of the period.

Location

Kornhausplatz 18, 3011 Bern, Switzerland

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