A renewed reading of Walter Pfeiffer's photographic practice.
Published by Mousse Publishing in conjunction with the eponymous exhibition at Pinacoteca Agnelli in Turin, this publication provides an essential reading of Walter Pfeiffer's practice in the field of photography. Conceived as a photo book instead of a traditional exhibition catalogue, the publication includes an extensive image section, focused on juxtapositions of images based on visual associations rather than chronology. This editorial decision mirrors the longstanding practice of the artist in the field of bookmaking and honors Pfeiffer's anti-hierarchical approach, which has been a guiding principle of the exhibition.
The publication features an essay by Nicola Trezzi—co-curator of the exhibition alongside Simon Castets—which echoes the exhibition's structure in order to propose a renewed interpretation of Pfeiffer's practice, positioning him as a "prophet of image-making." It is complemented by a fully illustrated list of works, designed to counterbalance the associative logic of the image section with a rigorously constructed historical record.
Walter 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.
