Urs Marty

This book encompasses the extraordinary oeuvre of Urs Marty. These largely unpublished photographs depict various strata of society and range from travel impressions and conceptually structured picture series, to his ubiquitous forays into red-light districts. Marty is never the distanced voyeur, rather he is an accomplice, if not a confidant of his subjects, who he depicts in close-up without artifice, as disenchanted yet dignified figures. Marty captures people and situations with the same cool precision as one might depict architecture or landscape, while never ignoring the emotional tone of the moment.

Urs Marty was born in Altdorf, Switzerland in 1942. After preliminary artistic studies in Luzern, he trained as a commercial photographer. Following an intensive period working for the advertising and industrial sectors, Marty was appointed as the inaugural lecturer in photography at Luzern's School of Design in 1968. During this time, his own artistic work also began to take shape. Working up until his untimely death in 2003, Marty has amassed a rich oeuvre of lingering fascination.