A re-edition of the original cult book of well known Swiss photographer Walter Pfeiffer. This photographic projet, entirely composed by the artist in 1980 with full page sequences of images and no text, led to the discovery of Pfeiffer's work in Polaroid which the public turned into a sort of underground icon.
“In his earliest work Pfeiffer can be seen in relation to Larry Clark, as a photographer who not only captures but implicates himself in the restless '70s, and yet Pfeiffer's irreverent sense of humor sets him apart [ … ] Walter Pfeiffer's work both anticipated and paralleled that of the '80s photographers and, in so doing, looked ahead to much of what followed. So it would be possible to see his pictures laid end to end as a secret thread to the present.” —
Bob Nickas (
Artforum)
“Le livre culte et introuvable est réédité…” —
Têtu
“A visual aesthetic developed in the '70s which became common language in the art world…” —
Self Service
“Une œuvre méconnue et pourtant voisine de celle de Larry Clark…” —
Les Inrockuptibles
“Vorläufer und Kult” —
Aargauer ZeitungWalter Pfeiffer (born 1946 in Beggingen) is a Zurich-based photographer and graphic designer. He spent a great many years photographing for the underground gay zine scene. His breakthrough didn't come till the turn of the millennium, however, particularly after his book
Welcome Aboard – Photographs 1980–2000 was published by Edition Patrick Frey in 2001. Heir to photographers such as Wilhelm von Gloeden or Herbert List and to the painter Paul Cadmus, contemporary of Larry Clark,
Nan Goldin or
Peter Hujar, he has built a founding work for contemporary photography which has deeply marked the generations of
Juergen Teller,
Wolfgang Tillmans and
Ryan McGinley. Pfeiffer's works can now be found at the Kunsthaus Zürich, Fotomuseum Winterthur and Bundeskunstsammlung Bern as well as in the Windsor Collection and Sir Elton John Photography Collection, among others.
