Souvenir Roe Ethridge
$50.00
“Souvenir St. Moritz” is a commissioned project for the city of St Moritz. I was invited by Gianni Pisano to make the second iteration of Souvenir. It was primarily shot in late February 2020 in St Moritz, Switzerland but also includes works from previously published editorial work and new unpublished art works as well as a quick visit to a “comune” called Dongo on Lake Como. Below is an excerpt of the copy I wrote as an introduction to the book. “...I had been to Switzerland before—I’d even been to a village in the Alps on assignment—but never to St Moritz. I assumed it would be different than other commissions I’d done, where the luxury of time and discovery would be my guide. I figured I would go snowboarding in the morning, take a few pictures of famous people and places in the afternoon, have a fancy dinner and spend the evening going over the edit, starting to formulate an idea for a layout. But as the time grew closer to traveling to St. Moritz, I kept thinking about the underlying structures of the place. The services and institutions of this luxury destination. How, in so many ways, I too am a service worker, just like the ski instructor or the marzipan maker. And selfishly, I was thinking about how nearly impossible it is to photograph a police station or fire department in my hometown of NYC. I mean, they have a fire department and a police station in St Moritz, right? Can I take pictures there?”