Smoke

“All photographs in this publication were taken between 2019 and 2025 at the annual cattle show in Appenzell Innerrhoden, Switzerland.They show local children puffing on cigarillos, a custom that is practiced on this day every year as part of a long-standing tradition rooted in Appenzell folk culture.”- Kris Lüdi After having spent the summer in the mountains, in the autumn the cows are brought down from in a festival called Alpabzug in German and paraded through the village with their heads wreathed in flowers and bells. On this day, Swiss children smoke Stumpen, small brown emblematic Swiss cigars, in a ceremony not only tolerated but encouraged by adults. The smoking comes to represent the adult responsibilities of the children, and their success in bringing their cows to the cusp of another winter. With Smoke, Kris Lüdi approaches the custom from a place of personal memory. As a child, Lüdi spent his summers with his grandparents in Appenzell and encountered the local children with the intimidated gaze of an outsider of the same age. Their nonchalant, down-to-earth manner conveyed a sense of meaning that resonated with him, and Smoke is his delayed response to that.The result is a reflection on the progressive and conservative forces of the present, on local customs and cultural practices, and their positioning between tradition and modernity. Smoke ventures into the very heart of Switzerland. Folkloric tradition becomes the starting point for a photographic observation that documents reality—but does not claim to be a documentation.