Arnold Odermatt

Arnold Odermatt was a Swiss policeman and photographer. His works were selected by Harald Szeemann for the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001. In 2002, The Art Institute of Chicago showed them and in 2004, Fotomuseum Winterthur.

Arnold Odermatt joined the Nidwalden police force in 1948. He photographed accident scenes to which he was called with a Rolleiflex in order to supplement the police record with photographs.

Odermatt’s own style was characterized by strict objectivity and consistent reduction to the essential. The spartan linguistic expression that characterized his police reports can also be found in Odermatt’s photographs. His mastery of craftsmanship is undeniable; nothing important escaped his photographic eye. In Karambolage, his best-known group of works, it is not the injured victims that can be seen, but car wrecks as surreal scrap sculptures removed from reality.

In the early 1990s, his photographs were discovered by his son, director Urs Odermatt, during research for his feature film Wachtmeister Zumbühl, and made a central theme of the story. Urs Odermatt compiled the works into the work groups Karambolage, Im Dienst, In zivil, Feierabend and Die Nidwaldner and has since published the work.

Odermatt died on June 19, 2021 in Stans at the age of 96.