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Aubrey Diem (1931-2015)
Aubrey Diem, born in 1931 and raised in Detroit, Michigan, USA, moved with his young family to Canada in 1960, where he taught geography at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, and was a driving force in establishing the new Faculty of Environmental Studies there. In 1967, he was appointed full professor and eventually even took Canadian citizenship. In addition to his numerous publications in scientific journals, Diem also wrote a novel and several non-fiction books. Even as a child, Diem loved to travel - and he never stopped doing so throughout his life. There is almost no country in Europe that he did not explore with his 35 mm camera in the 50s and 60s. His view of landscapes, cities and the way of life of the people and the resulting pictures show his deep understanding of the inner connections of history and place, coupled with an explicit sense of the diversity and beauty of life. In 1968, he came to Switzerland in search of a new and free home. He found it in Zinal, a small village in the Valais mountains, which became more and more the permanent base of his multifaceted activities. This is also how the collaboration with the Swiss agency Keystone-SDA came about, which now, beyond Aubrey Diem's death in July 2015, manages large slide holdings of his analogue photographic estate. Out of this responsibility, we have started an internal digitisation project under the direction of Eric Schumacher, who also got to know and appreciate Diem personally during the years of collaboration. We are pleased to present the first results of this work here, and so we wish you, in a deeper understanding of Aubrey Diem: Have a nice trip!
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