Maximilien Bruggmann 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 managed to capture on film – 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 are rare events. The last one took place at the beginning of 2013 at the Cultural Center of Shawinigan (Quebec), and before that there had been another in 2009 at the Manoir of Martigny (Switzerland). 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, July 2013
