What started off as a modest personal collection of modern and contemporary photography quickly found itself running out of space and relocating to a former kindergarten in the small Swiss community in the Valle di Muggio, Ticino.

Since 2010, Rosella and Philip Rolla have been providing photography enthusiasts the opportunity to experience key works by legendary photographers by the likes of Robert Adams, Josef Sudek, and Eugène Atget, as well as today’s leading contemporary photographers such as Thomas Struth, James Welling and Vincenzo Castella.

Whilst photography may be at the heart of the collection the Rolla’s interest also extends to American Minimal Art, something that could be linked to Philip Rolla’s background of growing up in the US and having the profession as an engineer. This professional background could also explain the couple’s love for German photography, particularly architectural and industrial photography of Albert Renger-Patzsch, Bernd & Hilla Becher, and Christof Klute.

Here, we present a selection of works from four previous exhibitions at the Rolla Foundation: the Miroslav Tichý solo exhibition which presented forty photographs and five works on paper from the Czech photographer; “Trees” which displayed thirty-six works from multiple photographers including Robert Adams, Eugène Atget, Josef Sudek, Anna Leader and Giovanni Luisoni; the exhibition “It”, consisting of twenty-six photographs, is inspired by the writings of John Szarkowski, particularly from his book The Photographer’s Eye; and the third event of the Rolla Foundation, “Houses”, that looked at the theme of houses through thirty-two photographic works from twenty artists.

The Rolla Foundation is featured in the Art Guide.