Overview of the year
Repower: a story in 4,000 images
September
Repower has had its comprehensive archive of original historical photographs professionally archived and digitised. The images go back to the founding years of the energy industry.
Repower’s digitised photo archive is accessible to the public on the website of the Fotostiftung Graubünden photographic foundation.
More than 4,000 original photographs dating from 1905 to 1985 are stored in the archive at head office in Poschiavo. Together with Fotostiftung Graubünden, Repower has secured this treasure trove of images for the future. All the photos were digitised, catalogued, professionally packed and then re-archived at head office in Poschiavo. “The energy industry is an important chapter in the economic history of Graubünden. By digitising its photo archive, Repower is helping preserve the canton’s visual memory,” explains Head of Media Relations Stefan Bisculm, who was responsible for the digitisation project.
The images are in the form of glass plate and acetate negatives, slides, medium and small format roll film, and paper prints. Among other things they feature aerial landscape shots of landscapes, the construction of retaining walls, tunnels and long-distance lines, transports of machinery and company events. The oldest images go back to the founding era of Kraftwerke Brusio AG, the company that went on to become Repower. Many of the shots were taken by well-known Graubünden photographers such as Albert Steiner, Alexander Flury, Otto Furter and Othmar Rutz.
“By digitising its photo archive, Repower is helping preserve the canton’s visual memory.”
For a better user experience, a selection of the images in Repower’s photo archive is described consecutively. The Associazione iSTORIA - Archivi fotografici della Valposchiavo, based in Poschiavo, is carrying out the research and documentation. For more than ten years the association has been looking after Valposchiavo’s photographic heritage, and in 2020 it curated, among other things, the highly acclaimed photo exhibition “E luce fu in Valposchiavo” on behalf of Repower.
The digitised Repower photo archive can be viewed by the public in the Fotostiftung Graubünden media library. The next step is to augment the photo archive with historic images from the archive of Küblis power plant, which celebrated its centenary in 2021.
Stefan Bisculm
Head of Media Relations