“My work procedure in Aspen was similar to that of most of my projects in the alpine space. Of course, by now I am able to draw on a certain amount of experience in exploring similar topographies, allowing me to proceed more systematically. The new or surprising aspect within a landscape sometimes evokes new image variations, developing my work further. I believe one can learn something from every place, as long as one actually gets involved in that place. And sometimes this only happens subconsciously. In the end every place we have been to leaves traces in us. Maybe my photographs are somehow like these traces (impressions), in a way rendering the context of Aspen visible through images. To do this I usually used a certain work procedure, which might be described as follows: From a distance events seem different and take on a different meaning than from the direct situation. That implies that the distance between oneself and a given situation determines and has the power to change the view and its perception. A logical course of events in respect to their immediacy is thus made abstract and could trigger an impulse to call the given situation into question.
(…) Another important aspect involved in understanding this landscape was the history and development of the view of landscape and the resulting shift in view over time, from the native inhabitants, the Ute people with their respectful use of the landscape, to the miners and their utilitarian notion of the landscape, to Aspen’s redevelopment following the decline of mining around 1936 and its growth into one of the most modern and posh ski resorts in the world, a transformation that coincided with the rise of winter sports tourism.”
Excerpts from the interview: Conversation: Exchanges between Paula Crown and Walter Niedermayr, published in The Aspen Series, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2013
Monographs (selection):
The Aspen Series, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2013; Conjonctions, Istituto Italiano di Cultura de Paris 2012; Mose, Linea di Confine per la Fotografia Contemporanea, Rubiera 2011; Appearances, Skira, Milano 2011; Recollection, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2010; Walter Niedermayr | Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / Sanaa, De Singel Antwerpen, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2007; Walter Niedermayr | Zivile Operationen, Kunsthalle Wien, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2003; Reservate des Augenblicks, ar/ge Kunst Galerie Museum, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 1998.