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Artworks:

Walter Pfeiffer

Untitled, 1975/2018
C-print
50.0 x 70.0 cm
Self-taught photographer Walter Pfeiffer draws from his many photos to create sets that, without seeking to tell a story, primarily reflect the artist’s aesthetic exploration. Through repetitions of colours, motifs and subjects, the whole conjugates into a harmony of visual relations, here revolving around two large black-and-white photographs. The eleven pictures making up this selection were taken between 1974 and 2006, but they are hard to situate chronologically, because his style has varied little over the years. Inspired by the snapshot, which originated in the underground world, Pfeiffer’s work continues to defy all categorisation.

Among these images, we find some of the frequent themes in his creative universe: flowers, stripes, and the fashion accessories that Pfeiffer uses to sublimate his subjects. The cat figure and a deformed face photographed through champagne glasses demonstrate his touch of humour and his exuberant inventiveness. His low angles and tight framings reveal an almost cinematographic dimension, which gives the same feeling of timelessness to each of his photographs in a total decompartmentalisation of genres.

Linking eccentricity with the poetic, Pfeiffer’s work conveys a powerful visual energy. Since the beginning of his photographic practice in the 1970s, he has been creating with appearance and reality—"Sein und Schein”—and immersing us in his audacious and quirky creative aesthetic. The iconic status of his images never stops inspiring a society that has an ever-increasing appetite for images.
Walter Pfeiffer, Untitled, 1975