Kurt Ammann – Youth the age of innocence
Milan, Regional Council of Lombardy, Consulate general of Switzerland, 2021
The theme of youth, so complex and delicate, runs through all of Kurt Ammann’s photography like a common thread connecting different times and places, animating faces, evoking thoughts and emotions, fears and shyness, alternating with gusts of pure joy. Ammann’s images return a sincerity that we recognize and that touches us; they are composed, exact, and yet they stay with us. The catalog, curated by Biba Giacchetti and Fausto Fabiano, collects the photographs shown in the homonymous exhibition held at the Pirelli Tower in Milan.
Kurt Ammann – Photoreporter since 1948
Milan, Chimera Publishing, 2011
“As a boy I used to take photographs with my father’s Leica. I remember that during a school trip, on the Naret pass in Ticino, Switzerland, I took hundreds of photos of my classmates as they climbed the mountain: today I would take only one photograph.” So begins Kurt Ammann’s retrospective monograph, which traces the Swiss photographer’s career through a selection of his finest images. From France to Turkey, South Korea to Brazil, the volume shows Kurt Ammann’s unique look at the world.
Un Peu Du Brésil
Paris, Panoramas, 1957
Maurice Sandoz shows “a little bit of Brazil,” not the Brazil of numbers and statistics, but the one we would all like to see. In this volume you will admire the magnificent churches, cloisters, and palaces of the colonial era. You will be dazzled by bursting nature, bright colors and exotic scents. Finally, you will get to know the diverse local population. Adding to the pleasure of the mind is that of the eyes: the 33 color photographs by Kurt Ammann render the kaleidoscopic charm of Brazil with rare fidelity.
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Kurt Ammann: the last romantic photographer
Giovanni Pelloso, Il Fotografo, March 2022
His blue eyes are striking. Always bright, filled with light. Even today, at the age of ninety-seven, when you meet him in his Milan home-studio, when you open the files and scroll through prints, Kurt Ammann’s gaze becomes clear. The small stories he witnessed and immortalized reveal the beauty of reality. His images shows adventurous journeys and unexpected encounters. His eyes are always open and receptive, free from any prejudice and fueled by sincere feeling.
Kurt Ammann: black and white stories
Giovanni Pelloso, Il Fotografo, April 2017
Kurt Ammann discovered his passion for photography when he was very young. That were the years of the German invasion of Europe. Switzerland, surrounded by the warring armies, was an island of salvation for many, but for Kurt Ammann, eager to know new places and people, it appeared to be a small prison. That sincere look of his teenage years, to which he would always remain faithful, hinted at a great desire for knowledge and adventure.
On a photograph by Kurt Ammann
Alberto Olivetti, Il Manifesto, March 2017
Paris, 1952. Jean Claude and the ring, secured to anchor the docking of the boats that sail the Seine and to set dreams free. Kurt observes the beauty of sleeping Jean Claude, contemplates his sleep without violating it. A sleep that the photographic image renders forever unharmed. Of his Parisian years, Ammann recalls: “I began to take pictures for myself, following my instincts and impressions, attracted above all by the human figure”.