“I really like it when the people I photograph get involved in the process; I like being in good company,” says the Elevetos photographer
Two young men—boys, probably teenagers—on the Adriatic coast are standing on top of each other. The blonder of the two is wearing a chain and wraps his legs over the shoulders and around the torso of his companion, who is bare-chested, tanned, and wearing a striped swimsuit. “I asked them to start posing where the water was shallow, but they decided that one would sit on the other’s shoulders. It wasn’t my idea,” says photographer Walter Pfeiffer to Wallpaper* about the double portrait, taken in Rimini in the 1980s.
“I really like it when the people I photograph are involved in the process. I like being in good company.”
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
“unnamed”: Solo exhibition by Spyros Agathos
“Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear”
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A Lasting Impression
At the Pinacoteca Agnelli gallery in Turin, where a major new retrospective titled “Walter Pfeiffer. In Good Company,” the image has been enlarged to the size of a movie poster and framed by a white border.
Placed so that it is the first standalone image visitors see upon entering the exhibition, it makes a strong impression and, moreover, serves as a fitting introduction to Feifer’s sixty-year career (in 1984, this image graced the October issue of the French magazine *Gai Pied*, once described as “the queen of European gay magazines”).
Impressions
“The title of the exhibition, too, is a powerful testament to Feifer’s character,” comments Zoe Whitfield in Wallpaper*, adding: “The Swiss photographer’s fame is palpable at the exhibition’s opening in Italy, where friends and admirers surround him to congratulate him and wish him a happy birthday —he has just turned 80.”
“Before entering the main exhibition, a massive wall covered with pages cut out and printed from Feifer’s albums provides additional context for the work that follows,” explains Whitfield.
This is a practice he established in the 1960s, while working at the Globus department store in Zurich, where he had been hired as a window dresser after graduating from the city’s School of Arts and Crafts.
It’s as if I’m seeing it for the first time
“I was bored and out of ideas, so I started cutting out pictures from magazines and pasting them into these notebooks,” Feifer recalls.
“I don’t like looking back at my work, which is why I love this wall—I’d forgotten all about it, so it feels interesting, as if I’m seeing it for the first time. When we published it as a book [*Scrapbooks 1969–1985* in 2012], we selected only the interesting elements, but here there’s more to discover.”
Interpretations
The exhibition “Walter Pfeiffer. In Good Company,” which spans six galleries with more than 100 images from the 1970s to the 2020s, highlights the broad scope of the artist’s career.
In one of the smaller spaces is the 1986 series “Das Auge, die Gedanken, unentwegt wandernd,” which includes black-and-white portraits printed in strict squares the size of album covers.
“Walter is very open to letting others interpret his work,” says Nicola Tretzi, who, along with co-curator Simon Kastecz, was primarily responsible for the exhibition’s flow.
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(@concematic_)The Heart of the Exhibition
One particular series of photographs stands out for its delicate sensitivity: the portraits from the series “Untitled (Carlo Joh),” taken over the course of several months in 1973, depict a young transgender person reshaping their appearance through makeup and drag.
Reflecting Feifer’s ongoing quest for beauty, yet with a faint, fleeting shadow (the teenager passed away shortly after their last photo session), the close-ups appear visibly different from their neighbors, a contrast emphasized by the wide margins of white space and the silver frames in which they are presented.
“This is the heart of the exhibition,” the photographer and Tretzi agree.
Source: in.gr
