© Lehnert & Landrock, Edouard Lambelet et Photo Elysée / Lehnert & Landrock, «Sans-titre», 1904-1914

Lehnert & Landrock. Revisiting A Colonial Archive

Where?
Photo Elysée - Musée cantonal pour la photographie
When
From 31.10.2025 to 01.02.2026
Price
From
12 CHF

Photo Elysée offers a critical reinterpretation of the photographic archives of the Lehnert & Landrock studio, which are part of the museum's collection. Active in North Africa in the early 20th century, Rudolf Franz Lehnert (1878-1948) and Ernst Heinrich Landrock (1878-1966) constructed and disseminated an iconography of the Orient intended for a European audience, deeply marked by the colonial context of their time.

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Address

Photo Elysée - Musée cantonal pour la photographie
PLATEFORME 10 - Place de la Gare 17
1003 Lausanne

How to get there

Schedules

From 31.10.2025 to 01.02.2026
Monday
10:00 - 18:00
Wednesday
10:00 - 18:00
Thursday
10:00 - 20:00
Friday
10:00 - 18:00
Saturday
10:00 - 18:00
Sunday
10:00 - 18:00

Plateforme 10 tickets - 1 museum, full price (adults aged 26 and over)

15 CHF

Plateforme 10 tickets - 1 museum, reduced price, adults aged 26 and over (AVS, AI, unemployed, students, apprentices)

12 CHF

Plateforme 10 tickets - 1 museum, under the age of 26

Free

Plateforme 10 tickets - 3 museums, full price (adults aged 26 and over)

25 CHF

Plateforme 10 tickets - 3 museums, reduced price, adults aged 26 and over (AVS, AI, unemployed, students, apprentices)

19 CHF

Plateforme 10 tickets - 3 museums, duo (visit for two, adults aged 26 and over)

38 CHF

Plateforme 10 tickets - 3 museums, under the age of 26

Free

Free admission on the first Saturday of the month.
On 24 and 31 December: 10am to 5pm.
Closed on 25 December and 1 January.

Access
CFF train station: 3 minutes on foot
Bus 1, 3, 21, 60: «Lausanne-Gare» stop
Bus 6: «Cécil» stop
Metro M2: «Lausanne-Gare» stop

More info

In 1985, the museum added the archives of the Lehnert & Landrock photography studio to its collection. Founded by Rudolf Franz Lehnert (1878-1948) and Ernst Heinrich Landrock (1878-1966), the studio was active in Tunis from 1904 to 1914, then in Cairo from 1924 onwards. It specialized in producing iconography of the Orient, which was widely distributed in Europe through photographs and postcards. The duo parted ways in 1930, and Landrock, then his heirs, continued to commercially exploit the images throughout the 20th century.

Today, Photo Elysée is questioning its role as a mediator of images by taking a critical and introspective look at the objects it preserves. To this end, it is presenting the original objects from the Lehnert & Landrock collection to the public for the first time. In collaboration with a research committee, the museum proposes to study the aesthetic and political dimensions of this corpus in the context of colonial enterprises.

To open up the discussion to other perspectives, Photo Elysée has invited artist Gloria Oyarzabal to explore these archives. Her contemporary perspective questions the way museums today approach collections related to colonial history. Her work enters into dialogue with that of Saudi artist Nouf Aljowaysir, who is interested in how artificial intelligence prolongs and reinforces stereotypes associated with the representation of the Orient.

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