A mountain landscape study in winter.

Emil Meerkämper: 1877-1948

Emil Meerkämper was a German engineer and photographer who lived and worked in Switzerland. He is considered one of the most important photographers in Graubünden.

Life: Emil Meerkämper grew up in the Ruhr region in North Rhine-Westphalia . His father was the master builder Anton Meerkämper, his mother Elise née Wallmann. After school he trained as an engineer. In 1900 Meerkämper came to Davos for a health cure because he had a lung disease. He worked as an engineer in road and bridge construction on behalf of the spa and tourist association. In 1905 he married Frieda Heierli, the daughter of the master butcher Meinrad Heierli from Appenzell. The couple had three children, including Max, who also became a photographer.

Meerkämper and Friedrich Wagner opened a photography shop in the Sporthotel Post in Davos Platz in 1910. Wagner left the business after a short time; Meerkämper continued to run it alone. In addition to the headquarters in Davos, he ran a branch in Sils Maria in the summer from the early 1920s and another branch in Ticino from 1930 to 1933, but this was not profitable. The photographers Otto Furter and Hans Steiner , among others, worked in Meerkämper’s studio . The photographer Lisa Gensetter completed her training as a laboratory technician with him. In 1923, Meerkämper separated from Frieda Heierli and married his colleague Lina Lendi, with whom he had a child.

Meerkämper worked primarily as a landscape photographer . He published reports and brochures, ran a postcard publishing company and continued to work closely with the Davos spa association. Until his death, he gave photo lectures throughout Switzerland. As he was a German citizen, his relationship with the locals was always tense, which became even more severe after the outbreak of war.

After 1930, Meerkämper’s health deteriorated and photography became increasingly difficult for him. After his death in 1948, his son Max took over the business. -Wikipedia (2024)