Im milden Licht der Kirschblüten:

In 1924, the young engineer René Vodoz moved from Baden to Kobe, Japan, with his wife Nelly and their two-year-old son Jean.

He had been sent there as a representative of the company Brown Boveri to develop the market for thermal machinery. Vodoz brought his camera with him.

The remarkable photographic collection from the 1920s presents Japan from the perspective of a European observer who arrived with little prior knowledge or cultural preparation. The photographs offer an unfiltered view of everyday life, surroundings, and encounters.

What emerges is often a different image of Japan than that conveyed by contemporary commercial photography—less staged, closer to lived experience, and shaped by personal perception rather than exoticized representation.