The Photographer

Manuel Bauer was born in Zurich in 1966. He studied photography from 1983 to 1987 and has been freelancing ever since. He specializes in long-term projects.

Bauer is a founding member of the photographers’ agency ‘Lookat Photos’. He teaches photojournalism at several institutions and has organized various exhibitions. Bauer’s works are widely published in leading magazines worldwide. Since 1989 he has been active in giving the public in the West an understanding of Tibet’s culture and political situation. In 1990 His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama personally opened Hans Reutimann and Manuel Bauer’s photo exhibition ‘Tibetan Culture on Foreign Soil’. The exhibit later toured many cities in Switzerland and Germany.

Bauer has also completed major photographic reports on the life of Tibetans in exile (India and Switzerland). In 1995 he documented the flight of a six year old girl from Lhasa over the Himalayas to Dharamsala. This outstanding work was published in leading magazines around the world. The story was the subject of a multivision slide show produced in four languages including Tibetan. Since its debut at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich in 1997, the show has been touring Europe.

Bauer returned to Tibet to document the political situation. As a result of extensive travels in the country, an exhibition and a publication were produced: ‘Besetztes Land - Shadow Tibet’. This exhibition has toured more than 30 different locations in India and Nepal, mainly Tibetan settlements. It is also regularly shown in Europe.

In 1999, Bauer was granted permission by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to photograph Losar Tsechu Sabsoel for the Museum Rietberg in Zurich. Since 1990 Bauer has been documenting the life of Tenzin Nueden Taksham, the 9th Shiwalha Rinpoche.

The Pictorial Portrait Project on His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama started in 2001.

Bauer is the recipient of various international photography awards:

1995_____Art Award Küsnacht, Switzerland
1995_____Swiss National Prize for Design
1996_____World Press Photo, Honorable Mention, Daily Life Netherlands
1996_____Yann Geoffroy Prize, Italy
1996_____Pictures of the Year, First Place, Magazine Division Feature Picture Story, USA
1998_____Swiss National Prize for Design
1998_____Swiss Press Photo
1999_____Hansel-Mieth-Preis, Auszeichnung, Germany
2000_____Christoph Eckenstein Stiftung, Schweiz
2002_____Outstanding Swiss Books
2005_____Swiss Press Photo – for the portrait on the 14. Dalai Lama

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