Salva Magaz, behind the scenes of watchmaking

Salva Magaz’s behind-the-scenes approach enables him to capture what’s going on away from public view, to cover privileged spaces to which most people rarely have access. He photographs events, societies or individuals, especially craftsmen whose activities are worthy of being held for posterity.

“I think beautiful things take time”, he declares. Although he originally started his career in IT, he was never able to fully abandon the lens. He makes his point by citing the Italian film, Pane e Tulipani (Bread and Tulips). He is a fervent Buddhist and so his inspired and exalted work does resemble meditation. Indeed, both watchmaking and jewelry require optimum concentration and self-control to produce extraordinary pieces. “Time and patience are pre-requisites to craftsmanship”, he states.

Photography is his way of captivating the absolute uniqueness of each moment. As he puts it: “Moving away from the object means getting closer to the vision.”

He was born in Geneva of Spanish stock. At the tender age of 12, he started surreptitiously using his father’s camera. He then set off to discover a magical, fascinating world. He travelled around Europe and Africa, visiting both Cameroon and Morocco in the process. He also saw India, Nepal and Tibet on various occasions. His whole work is marked by the influences from his travels.

For two years, he journeyed across the Indian sub-continent, to South Asia, through China and up to Siberia, then back down to Tibet and Mongolia.  He photographed different cultures and even many Tibetan masters, including the Dalai Lama on several occasions. Then, back in Geneva, many thousands of kilometers away, he worked for three years at Jean-François Schlemmer’s JFS studio. He developed a passion for photojournalism, especially the work of James Natchtwey, Sébastien Salgado, and Steve McCurry.

Magaz devoted some intense personal work to Alzheimer, the disease which claimed the life of his father. 

He also studied with Ron Haviv, co-founder of Agence Photo VII, and later became acquainted with Getty. He now works for a Spanish agency, ACPG, and for an independent press agency, TàG Press+41. Increasingly, however, his light-filled path has crossed into the horological universe, where he is starting to build a reputation for himself amongst watchmakers.