BOOKS
Eugen Coubillier

Street scene on the Heumarkt

The opera house on Rudolfplatz

The Bastei opened in 1924

Waste incineration plant in Niehl, around 1928

Portrait, 1930

Portrait, created between 1920 and 1940

View of the historic city centre from the Deutz Bridge, around 1925

View of St. Aposteln from Neumarkt, around 1930

Cathedral and St Andrew’s (right), around 1930Cathedral and St Andrew’s (right), around 1930

Hansaring and Hansahochhaus, around 1930

Lord Mayor Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967), around 1930

Eugen (Eugène) Coubillier, around 1925

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A photographer between technique and attitude

This book is dedicated to the almost forgotten Cologne photographer Eugen Coubillier, who characterised the cityscape between 1906 and 1943 – not through pomp, but through precision. While many of his contemporaries focussed on expressive effects, Coubillier documented objectively, calmly and with great attention to detail. His motifs: streetscapes, buildings, people in their everyday lives. He always remains at eye level and never dramatises. It is precisely this restraint that gives his pictures their weight. They do not show an embellished Cologne, but a Cologne as it was – neither staged nor falsified. This is what makes his work so revealing today.

Cologne on the threshold of modernity

Coubillier’s view of Cologne in the 1920s shows a city in transition – between medieval narrowness and industrial modernity. He photographed new buildings such as the Hansa tower block not as a sensation, but as part of a growing structure. The historical and the contemporary stand side by side on an equal footing. The image details appear well thought out, but never contrived. Instead of imposing meanings, Coubillier lets things speak for themselves. The result is a visual record of urbanity that avoids grand gestures and yet shows a city in motion.

Portraits with a sense for the unobtrusive

In his portraits, Coubillier concentrates on the individual presence of his subjects. The gaze is direct, the posture relaxed, the scene often casual. He dispenses with backdrops and props – the person alone is enough. The naturalness of his pictures of children is particularly striking: curious looks, sincere gestures, lively bodies. These photographs seem astonishingly contemporary today – not nostalgic, but timeless. Instead of depicting role models or ideals, he shows people in the moment of their being. This gives his portraits a depth that cannot be staged.

A late portrait of a long forgotten man

The book reconstructs Coubillier’s life and work using scattered traces, photographs and archive research. It is more than an illustrated book – it is a careful rediscovery. Coubillier was no revolutionary, no style-defining visionary. And that is precisely what makes him interesting: he observed closely, worked carefully and never placed himself above his subject. In a time of stylistic extremes, he opted for a calm, clear visual language. Coubillier was the quiet chronicler of turbulent times. His pictures show that even the unspectacular can be enduring.

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Further information

Further information on the book Eugen Coubillier (DE) (Advertising) can be found on the Greven Verlag website.

Compliance

The book was kindly made available to us by the publisher. The presentation and rating of HYPERMADE remains independent of this and is based solely on the content of the book.