The books published by Silva-Verlag are at the heart of Maximilian Bruggmann’s life. He has created over twenty books covering four continents. Thousands of Swiss families know of his work and collect Silva points on chocolates and sweets, travel tickets and other consumer goods, in order to exchange them against his books.
Everybody in the country, whether wealthy or less so, is therefore able to discover faraway communities, exotic continents or nearby regions. It was mass consumption that allowed exotic lands and reveries to enter the Switzerland of last century, opening a path to a different state of being.
#1
In the basin of the Ucayali (one of the major headstreams of the Amazon River), in the middle of the Peruvian jungle, a Shipibo Indian woman and her children cross the Yarinacocha lake.
#2
In the Chuquibambilla region, up in the highlands (Altiplano), an Aymara shepherdess is giving her little lamb the bottle, after having breastfed her own child, who is now on her back.
#3
The extensive region of Loreto in north-eastern Peru is very thinly populated due to the heavy, constant rains here in the source region of the Amazon. This Shipibo girl is using a large banana leaf as an umbrella.
#4
At the market of Santiago de Atitlan (Guatemala), the men still wore their customary striped trousers when this picture was taken; little by little, however, European-cut shirts were already replacing their traditional garments.
#5
The 1596-meter high Aiguilles de Bavella tower above the pass of the same name, which connects the “inner world” behind the mountains with the “outer world” in the coastal region of the “Île de Beauté” (island of beauty), which is itself a mountain in the middle of the ocean.
#6
The Sénanque Abbey, cosily located in a little valley near Gordes (Vaucluse, F), is one of the most beautiful examples of Cistercian architecture. It is still home to a small community of monks, who grow mainly lavender and lavandin.
#7
The northern province of Nordland features various glacial lakes divided by imposing gneiss mountains. The E6 road passes by lake Kobbvatn and leads through numerous tunnels, for which toll fees must be paid.
#8
For a long time, the frozen Outaouais River constituted the easiest way for the Indians and the first European explorers to reach the Great Lakes region. After this first winter day, facing the Isle-aux-Allumettes, the frost will not take long to cover these calm, clear river waters.
#9
View of the island and the Church of San Giorgio, seen from the Piazzetta on a high-water day.