In 1903, the architect Adolf Loos was tasked with transforming a rustic home on the shores of Lake Geneva. Formerly a leprosarium, the residence was later the positioning of an issue when the proprietor, physiology professor Théodore Beer, was accused of immoral conduct and left, in shame, for America. Now a personal residence, the house’s wealthy historical past of unresolved rigidity and psychological trauma makes it an arresting instance of twentieth-century structure. For Portuguese photographer Jaime Welsh, it proved irresistible.
Welsh’s earlier work has thought of the position that ideological methods and political buildings play in shaping us, in poignant photographs which emphasise the innocence and isolation of the person. When he got here throughout Villa Karma, its twin position as sanctuary and web site of trauma felt like a pure jumping-off level from which to discover themes of notion, surveillance and identification.
(Image credit score: Jaime Walsh)
‘I was drawn to Villa Karma for its secrecy,’ Welsh says. ‘The building is like a fortress, with rooms nested within rooms, doorways and vantage points built for observation. It feels ceremonial in its order and deeply oppressive, yet somehow oneiric. The history of the place also drew me in. It was shaped by illness, first a leprosarium and later the residence of a troubled neurologist.’
In Welsh’s images, Villa Karma turns into a dwelling factor, its construction not solely sheltering its inhabitants but in addition shaping them. ‘I was drawn to the passageways, whose lines of sight were designed for surveillance,’ he provides. ‘In the end, the camera assumes that role, replacing the architecture as the ultimate instrument of control.’
(Image credit score: Jaime Walsh)
It is unclear, within the works, if the villa is therapeutic or harming its inhabitants; to search out out can be irrelevant. ‘Safety and trauma often exist within the same space. What protects can also wound. Architecture absorbs contradiction, shaping anxiety and fear into form. I wanted that ambiguity to surface, where control and vulnerability coexist in the same frame.’
Jaime Welsh ‘Convalescent’ is at Ginny on Frederick, London, from 8 Nov – 17 Dec 2025