LAUSANNE.- Photo Elysée pays tribute to writer, photographer and traveler Ella Maillart (1903 1997) with an exhibition that looks back on her time in Central Asia in the 1930s.

The show celebrates the unique career of one of history’s great travelers, whose body of work was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2025 in recognition of its universal significance.

Featuring photographs and writings that trace Maillart’s four major journeys in the 1930s – through the USSR, China, Afghanistan and Iran – the exhibition highlights the documentary value of her work and its role in building understanding of the cultures she visited.

ELLA MAILLART

Maillart was born in Geneva in 1903. She established herself as an important travel writer and reporter at an early age. In the 1930s, guided by a rare independence of mind, she journeyed extensively through Central Asia, taking an avid interest in the cultures and peoples she encountered along the way. The hundreds of photos she took during her time there stand as an invaluable visual record of her travels. After returning to Switzerland, she wrote books and gave talks about her experiences.

UNESCO RECOGNITION

Maillart’s archives, comprising her photographs, films and writings, are held by Photo Elysée and the Bibliothèque de Genève. In April 2025, they were added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register alongside the archives of Annemarie Schwarzenbach, which are under the stewardship of the Swiss National Library. This major recognition, achieved through a joint initiative by the three Swiss institutions, testifies to the magnitude of the contribution these two women made to travel writing and photography – a genre that, in their day, was largely dominated by men.

MEMORY OF THE WORLD

Maillart’s photographs and writings document not only her personal experiences but also the major historical events to which she bore witness, such as the early years of Stalin’s rule in Central Asia, the birth of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, and the territorial and cultural clashes that followed the fall of the Chinese imperial regime. She left behind a rich and diverse photographic record of the major developments that shaped the world during her lifetime.

Among the most significant components of Maillart’s archive is her card catalog: 48 boxes holding hundreds of cards that together form a visual record of her journeys. The more than 1,000 images and handwritten notes in the catalog offer insights into the depth of her work and her distinctive view of the world.