Nude. Zurich, Switzerland, 1941

Under the auspices of his photography teachers at the Zürich School of Applied Arts (where he studied from 1932-36), a young Werner Bischof honed his unique approach, merging a love of nature with a fascination for experimenting with photographic techniques. He studied under Hans Finsler (1891–1972) a member of the avant-garde New Objectivity artistic movement which aimed to capture objective truth, and Alfred Willimann (1900–1957) who encouraged the young artist to employ extreme precision in his technique and composition. This combination of aesthetically focused and highly formal educators spurred Bischof to search for beauty in nature, employing it in technically informed photographic works.