Maximilien Bruggmann

Maximilien Bruggmann (1934 – 2016) is one of Switzerland’s greatest photographers. During half a century he has traveled the world to document stories and illustrate about sixty beautiful books. He has toured four continents and has captured – as though in passing – pictures of haunting humanity as well as photos that give us glimpses into eternity.

He has often traveled to the most remote areas of the Sahara to visit his nomad friends, or in search of rock paintings and engravings, whose authors, photographers ahead of time, painted on rocks or engraved in stone as prehistoric snapshots of life at a time when the Sahara was still green.

The exhibitions of Maximilien Bruggmann constitute rare events, for that more impressive. His photographic archive – consisting of nearly 100,000 slides – is evidence of a wide-ranging variety and extraordinary richness, covering from the Argentine gauchos to the camels of the Tuareg, through the spice route and the magnificent Alps to America's national parks, with their natural beauty and colorful, glittering native ceremonies.

A graphic designer by profession but a photographer by passion, Maximilien Bruggmann gives his pictures a unique aesthetic. With great care and thoroughness, he files his irreplaceable documents, which are truly one of a kind.

Alex Décotte