One-on-One Interview with Walter Pfeiffer

Text: Karol Chmielewski

Swiss photographer Walter Pfeiffer (@walterpfeiffer_official) has spent more than five decades working with what he calls beauty — not as an ideal, but as something that appears in moments, relationships, and chance encounters. Moving between fashion and personal work, his photographs resist spectacle in favor of intimacy, spontaneity, and a quiet attention to everyday life. At 10 BOOKS 10 COLORS, contributing writer Karol Chmielewski (@karchmielewski) met Pfeiffer to talk about his new book Vis-à-vis, his upcoming exhibition at the Pinacoteca Agnelli in Turin, and the way beauty continues to shape his images.

Walter Pfeiffer - Welcome Aboard

Karol Chmielewski: Where are you at right now — both physically and creatively? 

Walter Pfeiffer: I’m at home in Zurich. It’s very cold — even a little snow — I hate it. But this is where I am. Creatively, I’m working all the time. There’s a big exhibition coming up in Turin, and we’re working on it day and night. 

KC: Can you tell me more about the upcoming exhibition in Turin? 

WP: It opens at the end of April at the Pinacoteca Agnelli — the old Fiat building that became a museum. This time it’s only photography. In New York, we mixed drawings and films, but here it’s just photographs, starting from the early seventies, when I began, around 1971. It’s kind of a retrospective — some very early images, some later work, some fashion as well. I don’t interfere too much. I let them do it. The curators are Simon Castets and Nicola Trezzi. Simon and I have worked together for a long time, starting with the Swiss Institute. 

KC: At this moment in your life, how does it feel to look back at such a long body of work? 

WP: I don’t think about it so much. I’m more interested in what I’m doing now. Right now it’s the exhibition — working on it every day, making decisions. When I think too much, it doesn’t help. I prefer to stay busy and let things happen. 

Walter Pfeiffer - Welcome Aboard

KC: You recently released a book titled Vis-à-vis. What place does this book occupy in relation to the exhibition? 

WP: At first, I thought it would just be a catalogue. But then it became a real book. It’s more like a retrospective in book form. It includes pictures from different books I’ve done before, mixed with texts and drawings. It’s not like my scrapbook books — it’s more structured. We were actually already preparing a Polaroid book, but that had to stop because the exhibition became the priority. 

KC: Vis-à-vis is structured as an A–Z. What was the idea behind that format? 

WP: We went through the alphabet and asked: what should be A, what should be B, and so on. That’s how it started. I drew the letters myself. Each letter opens a small chapter — anecdotes, stories, memories. It’s very anecdotal. The pictures come from all my books, so it becomes a kind of personal history rather than a chronology. 

KC: You’ve often spoken about chasing beauty. Sitting here now, in this moment of your life, what does beauty mean to you? 

WP: Beauty… I still see it, and I still do it, but it’s getting harder. I’m a little bored in between. I feel that something else is coming. The people I photograph for myself don’t pose. They don’t even know what posing is. That’s very different from fashion. And it’s different from the seventies, when there was no Instagram. Back then, it was harder — maybe more honest. Beauty always happened in the moment. I never planned it. I never said, “Put your hand here.” It just happened. That’s where beauty comes from for me. 

Walter Pfeiffer - Antonin Wittwer / EY! Boy Collection

KC: If it wouldn’t be beauty, what do you think you would be chasing? 

WP: Nothing. (laughs) Just beauty. Of course, I’m interested in other things — drawing, for example. I like to draw. I have many interests. But if beauty comes along, I won’t say no. I don’t choose people from agencies. For me, it’s always about the relationship. I need that connection. 

KC: Your work seems very resistant to over-planning. How important is spontaneity in your process? 

WP: If I think about something too long, it doesn’t make sense anymore. I need to do it in the moment. When things are planned days in advance, it’s too much for me. There was a situation recently when I was working for a magazine in Zurich. They wanted a very produced shoot — a model in a famous, very expensive hotel. They flew in a stylist from abroad. He wanted to plan everything: the rooms, the scenes, where we would shoot, days before. That’s impossible for me. I go there, I look, and then something happens. The stylist became very angry. He said he had never worked with someone like me before. He went out, he came back — and finally he let go. And then it worked. For him, and for me. If I hold an image in my head for too long, it dies. 

Walter Pfeiffer - Antonin Wittwer / EY! Boy Collection

KC: You’ve long identified with the idea of the amateur rather than institutional titles. Do you still recognize yourself in that position today? 

WP: Yes. Freedom is everything for me. That’s why I refused teaching jobs. I knew that if I became a full-time teacher, I wouldn’t have time for my own work. I chose the hard way. I still feel like an amateur — in the best sense. Someone who works out of love, not obligation. That hasn’t changed. 

KC: As you approach eighty, what feels most important to you now?

WP: That I can still work. That my head is still okay. Everything else is changing — the body, the health — but I don’t think too much about it. If beauty comes, it comes. And if it doesn’t, I still work.

Walter Pfeiffer - Welcome Aboard (Published by Edition Patrick Frey, 2001)

Contributor

Warsaw-born and London-based, Karol Chmielewski (@karchmielewski) is an artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans photography, writing, and art direction.