Walter Pfeiffer, whose work in the 1970s and 1980s prefigured many of the decisive developments in contemporary art today, is a classic artist’s artist—famous and beloved among art aficionados, yet almost forgotten by the public at large. Now, it’s the time to discover him as his images seem timelier than ever.
Welcome Aboard! Photographs 1980–2000 is, at the same time, a monograph on Pfeiffer’s photographic work and an artist’s book, a photo-novel all of its own. Pfeiffer takes you on a long trip from suburban bliss to the horse race at Ascot, from wind-swept beaches to majestic mountain tops. Pfeiffer knows our dreams and artfully plays with them. In his still lives, landscapes, and portraits of beautiful boys and mischievous women, Pfeiffer celebrates his quest for beauty and glamour with sophistication, irony, and wit. Pfeiffer leads you in a world between reality and reverie, snapshot and mise-en-scène. It’s a photo album from Arcadia. With simple means Pfeiffer creates intelligent and classic images of beauty and bliss, imbued with a wistful awareness of their artifice. Stylish, suggestive, and erotic, his images are an encyclopaedia of desire.
