‘More Than a Postcard’ photo exhibition at the pedestrian walkway at the station in Luxembourg-Gare;
Credit: Steven Miller, Chronicle.lu
Cercle Cité’s Ratskeller gallery and the pedestrian walkway connecting Place de la Gare with the Luxembourg-Bonnevoie district are currently exhibiting photographs from Photothèque de la Ville de Luxembourg under the title More Than a Postcard: Luxembourg Between Arrival and Departure.
Chronicle.lu recently visited the exhibition at both locations to see how it, in the words of organisers Photothèque de la Ville de Luxembourg, “examines Luxembourg City's role as both a travel destination and a point of departure”.
The installation on the pedestrian walkway at Luxembourg capital’s main railway station sits in contrast to the more intimate surroundings of Cercle Cité’s Ratskeller. The walkway is flooded with light and bustles with commuters making their way from platform to platform and from one side of the city’s railway tracks to the other. This atmosphere invites two contrasting ways in which one can investigate the images on display: at a glance during peak pedestrian times or patiently at quieter moments of the day.
The pedestrian walkway installation features over 40 images from highly renowned Luxembourg photographers such as Pol Aschman, Edouard Kutter and Batty Fischer, covering the period from the early 1900s to the 2010s. The pictures are predominantly in black and white and feature images of scenes at Luxembourg airport and throughout Luxembourg city, as well as featuring a variety of images from locations in the Luxembourg countryside.
At the Ratskeller the exhibition is split into two distinct areas and offers a more in-depth experience. The main area has more than twice the number of photographs on display, featuring a combination of black and white and colour images by the likes of Pol Aschman, Francois Buny, Theo May, arranged into themes such as “Just landed”, “City strolls” and “Greetings from Luxembourg”. These detail arrivals at the old Luxembourg airport and tourists taking in the city’s attractions, as well as café and street scenes from the early 1900s up to modern day.
The second area is dedicated to images taken abroad during the travels of other photographers such as Batty Fischer in 1900s Paris, Marcel Schroeder in 1960s New York and Edouard Kutter Jr at the 1958 Brussels World Fair, and provides a comparison of tourism and travel elsewhere in the world but through the same photographic eyes as the Luxembourg-based images on display.
Additionally in this area of the exhibition, a variety of archive photographs from the Photothèque de la Ville de Luxembourg are available to view in two large bound volumes.
Overall, the exhibitions in both venues offer a unique glimpse into Luxembourg’s 20th century tourism industry, be it incoming or outgoing. The photographs of the old Luxembourg airport in particular show a period when air travel seemed more relaxed, glamorous and less stressful than that which has existed since the experience of air travel changed following the terrorist attacks in New York on 11 September 2001. The images of carefree passengers carrying their own luggage to and from the aircraft, while spectators observe from balconies overlooking the runway, seem almost otherworldly now.
In comparison, the older photographs of tourists writing their recently purchased postcards from a kiosk on Place de la Constitution carry a more familiar sense of the now, albeit by illustrating what is an almost archaic medium of communication by today’s standards.
Somewhat ironically, the exhibition feels as if it is there to cater for those who live permanently in the Grand Duchy, with those tourists only visiting for the day unlikely to be able to fully appreciate both what has changed in the capital city and what has not. The shifting fashions on display, old vehicles and buildings no longer here and the colour palettes of the time captured so distinctly through the use of old analogue film stocks give the images a genuine layer of nostalgia beyond their main subject matter.
Ultimately, the exhibition shows how tourism itself has evolved as much as any destination. And maybe that is really where the heart of the exhibition lies.
More Than a Postcard: Luxembourg Between Arrival and Departure runs at both the Cercle Cité and Luxembourg-Gare locations until Sunday 20 September 2026.
A free, English-language guided tour, led by member of the Photothèque de la Ville de Luxembourg, Keven Erickson, will take place at 15:00 on Sunday 20 September 2026 at the Cercle Cité’s Ratskeller in Luxembourg-Ville. Reservations for the tour can be made via email: phototheque@vdl.lu.
SM
