Getting Prepared: Part 1

Co-Worker and RNS reader, Paul, emailed me these rather interesting photos of emergency bunkers in Switzerland.

From photographer, Leo Fabrizio: 

For over four years, I have developed a photographic documentary work on Swiss fortified constructions – bunkers. Each element of these photographs has a relation with Switzerland and particularly the mountain landscape that is an inherent part of our identity. The bunkers are a integral part of a finely developed popular defense military system in Switzerland, a military with historically strong links to the landscape.

After the cold war ended many of the bunkers became obsolete. The tendency is to forget them or even to renounce them, my approach on the contrary, aims to expose them from a new angle. This approach has led me to discover a great number of bunkers, some in remote areas, sometimes difficultly accessible, covering the whole of the Swiss territory. The relations between these basic shaped bunkers and the often-sumptuous landscape surrounds them became an essential part of the study. I looked for the most spectacular bunkers, notable for their camouflage devices, true theatre scenery made with the utmost care. A quality indeed fully Swiss.

Some of them only look like houses built into the hillside. Others look not only formidable, but damn near indistinguishable from the hillside.

Take a looksee. And maybe get an idea of what yours should look like.