Vintage Posters of La Tzoumaz

As you, my dear readers, probably know by now… my home from home is in a small mountain resort called La Tzoumaz in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. This article is about the latest addition to my online shop – vintage posters of La Tzoumaz.

La Tzoumaz is where I created my first labeled panorama, my first calendars, and the resort and the surrounding valleys also take up a disproportionate amount of space in my photo book ‘Mein Wallis – Mon Valais – My Valais’. Do check out my website for any of these products.

In my capacity as a real estate photographer I worked in many luxury chalets all over the Valais and I noticed that often they displayed ‘vintage’ posters of their resort (e.g. Verbier or Crans-Montana) on the walls. Since there was clearly a market for this, I thought how about the only resort I really care about, La Tzoumaz?

Now… vintage in La Tzoumaz is difficult, as the resort has only been officially called that name since 2005 (it was previously known as Mayen-de-Riddes). The name change came after the powers in charge deemed Mayen-de-Riddes to be too sleepy a name to promote to the fast and furious clientele they were hoping for.

Anyway… vintage posters date typically from the first half of the 20th century, hence the name La Tzoumaz is unlikely to appear on any.
But what If I could make one? Fake is the new real anyway… thus in 2019, I created 4 vintage posters of La Tzoumaz. At the time I printed one for myself, realised that I had no frame, and left it in the tube it came with.

Fast forward to this summer, me cleaning up the cellar in the chalet. I stumble over the tube, take out the poster, and decided to display it in my chalet. I found a frame down in the valley in a DIY shop called Hornbach at a very reasonable price that fitted the poster (50x60cm) perfectly.

Friends came to visit, liked the photo, and said I could sell this. I knew that I had the files somewhere back in London, found them on a backup disc, and decided to add the four ‘vintage’ posters to my online shop. I mentioned the addition on my social media channels (Instagram/Facebook/Twitter… I know, crazy) and would you believe it, sold some.

The thought that something I created years ago is creating interest is filling me with hope. I have many failed products or ideas in my archive…
In 2014 I tried to sell the ‘labeled panorama’ cover to wrap around a Toblerone box. Maybe I should give Mondelez International (the company that owns Toblerone) another try 😉.