Yves Humbert was a local photographer who was passionate about Nyon, fascinated with the lake and the people who lived in the area. He spent most of his life taking photos of these passions, and when he died, left an extraordinary legacy of thousands of negatives and photos. Many of these photos were untitled and unnamed. In the past week the local newspaper La Côte has been printing a photo per day within its pages and asking members of the public if they recognise themselves in any of the photos. The project has created some reminiscing, along with interesting discussions about town life, past and present.
Last night in Nyon there was a "vernissage" (opening) of a selection of these photos and visitors got the opportunity to look at them a bit more closely. Some photos are faces of unknown locals, some more recognisable townspeople. But what is also interesting is that even if the fashion of the people and some elements of the town have changed, somethings remain the same. The market sellers of Nyon are still selling fruit and vegetables, folk are dancing in the streets at fêtes, and parades still have their bands with drummers. Interspersed between the photos of Humbert I have placed a few of my own (in colour) taken over the past year just to illustrate the point.
Amongst the photos in the exhibition you will see a very young looking Daniel Rossellat, founder of Paléo rasing a glass of wine to the camera. There's another of José Barrense Dias (Brazilian guitarist resident in Nyon), seen with his guitar, he too was at the vernissage last night, and there are photos of young politicians, some whom are still around today.
Also present last night was Madame Francfort, Yves Humbert's mother. She recounted to me how he loved the lake area and often used to say, "Ah c'est mon lac, mon rive!" and how much he adored living here. She also said he was great charmer too, especially with women. It also sounds like he was a complex character. Alan Bach a friend who knew him well said that Humbert could possibly have been more famous on a worldwide scale. There were others that recognised his talent and opportunities were sent his way that he could have pursued, but Humbert preferred to stay local (he had his own photography gallery in Rue De La Poterne).
Bach is now one of those who has taken on the enormous task of preserving Humbert's photos and distributing them to various institutions. You can go and see some of the photos at this free exhibition entitled "Portraits de Nyon et Photographie de Presse 1968-1996" which on at "La Grenette" (just on the corner of Place du Marché) until the 19th September.
What is clear that comes across from this exhibition, is that what makes a town interesting isn't just its buildings and its streets, its also about what goes on in those streets and the people who live there.
Below: Drummers at New District day April 2008
Below: Euro 2008 at the UBS arena
Below: Someone checking out the photos on the way home from work