Ella Maillart. Photographic Stories

Über diesen Ort

Photo Elysée honours the writer, photographer and great traveller Ella Maillart (1903-1997) with an exhibition devoted to her journeys through Central Asia in the 1930s. In 2025, UNESCO recognised her complete body of work as a work of universal value and added it to the Memory of the World register, “Memory of the World”. On the occasion of this globally significant distinction, this exhibition highlights the unique life path of a woman who shaped the history of travel. Through her photographs and travel writings, Photo Elysée retraces the four major journeys the explorer made in the 1930s to the Soviet Union, China, Afghanistan and Iran. The exhibition sheds light on the broad documentary significance of her work and its importance for understanding the cultures she encountered on her travels.