Suzi Pilet

Collection of five photographs by Suzi Pilet, signed on the front or back, some dated 1942 and 1986.

Provenance: Private collection, Lausanne

Suzi Pilet (1916–2017) was the first female photographer in Lausanne to earn a living from her craft.

She chose the profession of photography by chance and earned her living as a freelance children’s portrait photographer. In 1949 she opened a studio on Avenue du Théâtre, followed by a studio-shop on Rue Grand-Saint-Jean in Lausanne, where she took portraits and exhibited her work.

Suzi Pilet was never without her Rolleiflex and always worked in black and white in the 6×6 format.

Her work was based on a poetic exploration akin to surrealism, and she took a keen interest in nature. Alongside this symbolic approach, and in line with a humanist current in photography, she photographed society’s ‘marginalised’ – a sex worker in Geneva, an inmate at La Santé Prison, and the daily lives of the Roma community.

The Suzi Pilet photographic archive has been entrusted to the Museum Photo Élysée, Lausanne.