Adventurer, photographer and writer Ella Maillart (1903–1997) traversed Asia several times in the 20th century. In 2025, her entire body of work was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in recognition of its importance. Photo Elysée, which has held her photographic archives – consisting of thousands of images – since 1988, pays tribute to Maillart with this exhibition.

Focusing on Maillart’s four major journeys to Asia in the 1930s, the exhibition sets her images in dialogue with her writings and shows how her work serves as a record of a pivotal time in global history.

Maillart journeyed extensively through Central and East Asia between 1930 and 1939, driven by boundless curiosity and an interest in how other people lived. During her time in the USSR, China, Afghanistan and Iran, she witnessed the spread of Soviet rule in Central Asia, the emergence of post-imperial China and the birth of Manchukuo, the Japanese-controlled puppet state in Manchuria. She documented her travels in her writings and in the thousands of photographs she brought back to Switzerland, carefully annotating them upon her return.

The selected works provide insight into the historical events to which she bore witness and the encounters that shaped her perspective. The writings accompanying her photographs shed light on the political and social context of the period. Together, they form a unique record of a time when Asian and global history were changing course.