Walter Pfeiffer
Untitled, 1980-2000
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Pfeifferland
FAIRY TALE: How are and were the preconditions of your work?
Walter Pfeiffer: In the beginning
I never sold anything, I had to take
all my pictures back home.
I soon could have opened a shop, that's how piled up everything was. I was desperate and threw a lot of things away. Something I now of course regret. Nothing was written about my books in Switzerland, which was tough for me, especially with the first one (Walter Pfeiffer 1970-1980, Reed, 2004).
Maybe because of the things having to
do with sex.
It was probably too early. At any rate, a strong will was necessary to not let that get you down. But I built up my own crew and sealed myself off from the evil, evil world that was not interested in my work, and continued to work.
FT: Did you ever have problems because of your work, were their works that you couldn’t exhibit because they were regarded as being too offensive, for example?
WP: I had to remove certain things maybe once or twice, but that’s nothing compared to this: For the sex scene in the first book (fuck on the sofa) I was only allowed to use that one photo and had to cut up all negatives under the scrutinizing eyes of the model’s boyfriend. That hurt because there were good pictures among them that could really be used! That was the first and (hopefully) last time I had to do something like that. That’s how strict the customs were at the time.
FT: What is your attitude towards commissioned work? Do you have problems with it?
WP: Not at all. Until now, I’ve always had commissions that were selected to fit almost perfectly to my way of shooting.
But I don’t want to be under pressure all of the time.
I have to be able to withdraw repeatedly so as to do my actual work. However,
I must say that it is sometimes very inspiring and I always learn things!
FT: Have you ever worked in the field
of fashion photography?
WP: I just returned from Berlin where
I shot a spread for the fashion magazine ACHTUNG. I really enjoyed it, we did a casting and I was able to choose the most beautiful beginners. Beginners, because it’s too difficult for me to handle those with more experience.
And of course they have to be beauties with whom I immediately fall in love.
In that way almost nothing can go wrong.
FT: Are you interested in that?
WP: If it’s not too stressful, yes.
FT: I have been dealing with fashion photography for a long time, and in the past years I’ve increasingly noticed that the models are becoming more and more trivial and uninteresting. Just yesterday I saw a large ad for a fashion magazine placarded in the city.
It showed the cover of the magazine, an incredibly well-dressed model but without any charisma. A poor girl, with an unenthusiastic face dragged in front of a camera.
A piece of wood would have been better than the girl. Where do you see the main focus in fashion photography? Are the clothes more important than the model
or vice versa?
WP: They are usually just clothes hangars, without character, who just
do a job, the same is true of many photographers. It leaves you cold, but sometimes something catches your eye, maybe because everything is not that perfect and a few failures can be found that make the whole thing interesting.
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