Maximilien Bruggmann

Maximilien Bruggmann (1934–2016) was one of Switzerland’s greatest photographers. For half a century, he travelled the world to produce numerous photo-essays and illustrate some sixty beautiful books. He travelled across four continents. His images bear witness to the depth and fragility of the world.

Maximilien would travel to the most remote corners of the Saharan desert to meet his nomadic friends. His passion was the search for rock engravings, whose creators – photographers before their time – had etched snapshots of prehistoric life into the stone, back when the Sahara was green.

Exhibitions of Maximilien Bruggmann’s work are rare events. His photographic archives – comprising over 150,000 slides – offer a wealth of diverse and extraordinarily rich imagery, ranging from Argentine gauchos to Tuareg camel drivers, via the Spice Route, the vast landscapes of American national parks, the majestic panoramas of the Alps and the colourful splendour of Native American ceremonies.

Trained as a graphic designer and a photographer by passion, Maximilien Bruggmann imbues his photographs with a distinctive aesthetic. The extreme meticulousness he applies to their archiving makes them documents that are now impossible to find and irreplaceable.

Alex Décotte