About the Swiss photographer, Arnold ODERMATT (1925-2021)

Arnold ODERMATT, who has sadly passed by in June, was a police officer in the canton of Nidwalden in Switzerland from 1948 to 1990. His photographs were shown at the Venice Biennale in 2001 and later at the Art Institute in Chicago and the Museum Winterthur. His work has been published since 1993 by his son, the film and theater director Urs Odermatt.

Photo books by Arnold ODERMATT

'Meine Welt. Fotografien / Photographs 1939-1993' (2001); 'Karambolage' (2003); 'Im Dienst/On Duty/En Service)' (2007, 2013); 'In zivil/Hors service/Off Duty' (2010, 2014); 'Feierabend/Aprés le boulot/After work' (2016); 'Ein gutes Bild muss scharf sein' (2017)


For 40 years the Swiss police officer Arnold ODERMATT captured accident scenes & property damage. What results from his official work is 'Karambolage', a selection of melancholic, sometimes funny & always strange atmospheric photos of our mobile society.
168,00 € Weight 3.5 kg
'Ein gutes Bild muss scharf sein' closes a gap in the literature about Arnold ODERMATT, who as a self-taught photographer in the post-war period recorded accidents, police service, everyday life as well as his family with his 6x6 medium format camera.
16,80 € * Weight 0.4 kg
The volume 'After work' contains masterpieces by Arnold ODERMATT, who trained his craft & his eye significantly on the tasks of his police service. His photo archive would possibly have been disposed of if the photographer's son had not rediscovered it.
49,95 € *
Police officer Arnold ODERMATT documented accident scenes to which he was called. With his eye for the insignificant, he repeatedly captured outstandingly composed scenes - often unintentionally humorous and ironic. 'Meine Welt' contains 140 of his shots.
0,00 € *
The book 'On Duty' by the Swiss police officer and self-taught photographer Arnold ODERMATT is an impressive document of a vanished and yet familiar time. It contains images in distant colors that greet us from the past like the smells of our childhood.
from 65,00 € Weight 3 kg
'Off Duty' by Arnold ODERMATT is an impressive document about the staging of a life in the village world, where a police officer's evening is not private, but civil. So wife, son, daughter wait patiently to annoyed, because a proper picture takes its time
from 48,00 € Weight 3.1 kg