“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.

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.

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.

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”.