Steidlville

An underground classic for years, Walter Pfeiffer has developed a unique blend of eroticism and wit, classical serenity and ornamental playfulness, artifice and immediacy that has begun to garner major international attention in the past few years. Fotomuseum Winterthur and Steidl present an unprecedented chronological overview of Pfeiffer’s photographic work, spanning four decades from his beginnings in the early 1970s to his most recent work. Some of the photographs have never been published or exhibited before; thus the book provides a new perspective on Pfeiffer’s oeuvre. Initially a painter, draughtsman, and graphic designer, Walter Pfeiffer started to use photographs as aide-memoirs while working on large-scale photorealist pencil drawings in the early 1970s. But he soon developed a genuine passion for photography and its capacity to capture transient epiphanies of beauty. Inspired by a cast of handsome drifters and stylish women, he established his very own Warhol-inspired “Factory”, and began to carve out his trademark style that testifies to both his desire for timeless beauty and his precise observation of the permutations of fashion and style.