Le Manoir de la ville de Martigny
Maximilien Bruggmann invite to discover the many facets of his working methods, his travels, his dreams and visions of the world, as well as the «habitat» in which all of this came to be...
Maximilien Bruggmann calls his apartment in Yverdon-les-Bains his «biotope»: Here he finds the stability that any world traveller needs. Here is his anchorage, his home, a place to feed and entertain friends and an archive for his photos: the safe haven to which he has returned from each of his sixty trips around the globe.
To the visitor, this biotope, this «Manoir» (villa) of Maximilien’s is more like Ali Baba's treasure chamber. What can one discover there? A jumble of daily-use objects brought back by the photographer from his travels: Vinyl records of folk, jazz and classical music, paintings by Bruggmann the artist, a few posters of his photo exhibitions, shelves with all of his illustrated books, boxes with his photo archives in the form of slides, contact sheets, notebooks... But also human warmth and a kitchen where everything is always ready to pamper guests. You can see and feel that Maximilien Bruggmann has had a full life.
Born in 1934 in Entlebuch, Lucerne, he attended the graphics department at the School of Applied Arts in Lucerne, and then in Bern. At the age of 23, his fascination for the mountains took him on an adventurous journey to Africa, that Africa which would mark him for the rest of his life. He started out hitchhiking in Lausanne – where he worked as a graphic artist – with the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro as a target, which he reached after months of wandering as he travelled through the African continent on foot. However, as with any trip, the destination is only part of the story. It is the journey itself that brings you further and changes you, and it is thanks to it that travelling finds its true meaning. For Maximilien, this journey was the beginning of a long love story with a landscape form which has remained his passion until this day: the largest dry desert in the world, the Sahara – its vastness, its engravings and rock paintings, as well as the Blue People, the Tuareg.
Maximilien Bruggmann calls his apartment in Yverdon-les-Bains his «biotope»: Here he finds the stability that any world traveller needs. Here is his anchorage, his home, a place to feed and entertain friends and an archive for his photos: the safe haven to which he has returned from each of his sixty trips around the globe ...
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Back in Switzerland, Maximilian Bruggmann had one idea only: to gain some insight into the secrets and mysteries of his first Africa experience. While working as a graphic artist and photographer in Lausanne, he got ready for his second trip to visit the Tuareg in Tassili n´Ajjer. For one year he would film, photograph, learn, discover and devote himself to his passion.
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His second homeland: the land of the Blue Men, the free men. Fascinated by the harmony between the landscape and the people living within, compelled by the feeling of freedom he shares with the nomads in their day to day in the Sahara, Maximilien Bruggmann extends his stay with them and reports on their life from every corner of the desert.
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Maximilian Bruggmann has not forgotten where he comes from, where we all come from. There, where the desert was once green, amidst the rocks, one can find art in its ideal setting. Whether paintings or engravings, it is the quality of the art that entices the photographer. Step by step, he expands his research by travelling into the deserts and rocky regions of America.
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The books published by Silva-Verlag are at the heart of Maximilian Bruggmann’s life. He has created over twenty books covering four continents. Thousands of Swiss families know of his work and collect Silva points on chocolates and sweets, travel tickets and other consumer goods, in order to exchange them against his books.
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Aesthetics and perfection are the focus of Maximilian Bruggmann’s work. However, the photographer has many, sometimes unpredictable facets: on a trip through western United States, in 1986 he arrived in Venice, California.
He just had to seize the opportunity: within a matter of hours, he had taken ...
Argentinean gauchos or cowboys from the land of Uncle Sam: wherever there are horses, Maximilian Bruggmann takes part in the life of these space- and freedom-loving men, who proudly become one with their horses. There is a sort of desert wind blowing around their hats, and a series of deep ...
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Maximilian Bruggmann? A traveller of eternity. A lover of life. An admirer of men and women in their full diversity. Beyond the continents, beyond the travels and the differences, remains the essence: man. The life of this photographer is, first and above all, a life made of encounters and friendships ...
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