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- Arnold Odermatt
- Arnold Odermatt, born in Oberdorf, Switzerland, in 1925, joined the police force in 1948 and retired in 1990 with the rank of first lieutenant, chief of traffic police and vice commandant of the Nidwalden Police Department. Harald Szeemann exhibited Odermatt's photography at the 49th biannual art festival in Venice. In 2002, James Rondeau showed them in a one-man exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago.
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- Karambolage
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With thoroughness and meticulous attention to detail, Swiss police officer Arnold Odermatt photographed automobile accidents on the streets of the Swiss Canton Nidwalden, documenting accident scenes and property damage during his 40-year career.
In his photos the drivers have gone and the victims have been removed. All that’s left are the wrecked cars that tell the stories of excessive speed, drunk driving, right-of-way errors and plain foolishness. The deformed steel takes on a malleable quality. The cars become sculptures that show the sudden end to many hopes and dreams, the intrusion of the unforeseen into well-regulated daily life.
What results from the picture-taking policeman’s official work is a selection of melancholic, sometimes funny and always strange atmospheric photos of our mobile society.
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- On Duty
- Police officer and photographer Arnold Odermatt became famous in his retirement on the publication of Karambolage, his photographic journal about the traffic accidents that were part of his professional life in the Swiss canton of Nidwalden. The small police force in the Nidwalden communities was worried about who could take over its work because the village youth did not see themselves wearing uniforms and walking the beat. On Duty brings together the photographs which were Odermatt’s attempt to disabuse them of their misconceptions. He sent his colleagues to the barber shop and theatrically recreated the adventure in their daily routines. On Duty is a compelling sequence of colourful tableaux and an impressive document and insight to a hidden world.
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- Off Duty
- Does any family not have family photos? Every other picture taken is a family photograph and most are glanced at quickly and just as quickly wiped from memory. In this sea of sameness, Arnold Odermatt’s family photos bear his signature style, standing out for their clarity and order and the detached demeanor of his subjects. Arnold Odermatt, police officer and photographer, achieved fame with his photographic journal of car accidents, Karambolage. His last book, On Duty, documented the small police corps with which he worked for many years, effectively advertising their skills and services. In this book, Off Duty, he shows life after the officer has parked his cruiser in the garage, turned off the scanner and hung his uniform in the closet. Showered and clad in fresh shirts and clean blouses, the photographer’s spouse, son and daughter wait in the living room or garden for their close-ups. Sometimes they wait patiently and at other times they are annoyed – not very different from the reactions of colleagues on duty, who also learned that a good photograph takes time. Odermatt created an impressive document of life within a small village, where the police officer off-duty was not exactly private but civilian.