Walter Pfeiffer
Ohne Titel
Ohne Titel, 1976
From Proposal für eine Ausstellung
Gelatin-silver print, 10.5 x 14.8 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur
2004-030-017-b
© Walter Pfeiffer
b. 1946 (Beggingen, CH), lives and works in Zurich, CH
Walter Pfeiffer’s portraits centre on the performative play with identity. His Chez Walti group of works comprise photographs he took of friends and acquaintances from Zurich’s queer scene; taking his cue from Andy Warhol’s Factory, he hosted regular gatherings for them in the 1970s, convened in a villa on Freigutstrasse. The serial principle is carried on in the 1981 work Die Augen, die Gedanken, unentwegt wandernd (The Eyes, the Thoughts, Ceaselessly Wandering), an almost typological search for the male ideal of beauty, whose formal rigour sets it apart from the snapshot aesthetics of his earlier works. Trained as a display artist, Pfeiffer attended the school of applied arts in Zurich between 1966 and 1968 before going on to work as a graphic artist for magazines like Elle and Twen. The visual world of glossy magazines also impacted his work as an artist and photographer, in which he routinely played with references not only to advertising and fashion but also to American pop art. The presentation of his Carlo Joh. series in the 1974 exhibition Transformer: Aspekte der Travestie (Transformer: Aspects of Travesty) at Kunstmuseum Luzern, alongside positions by Urs Lüthi and others, established him in the art milieu. However, it was not until the 2000s, on the back of commissioned work as a fashion photographer for magazines like Vogue and i‑D, that he made a name for himself on the international scene.