Walter Schels

Born 1936 in Landshut, Germany
Lives and works in Germany

Walter Schels is regarded as one of Germany’s most important contemporary photographers. He made a name for himself with character studies of celebrities from politics and culture, portrait series of people in extreme situations and animal portraits. A key experience for him was a commission from the magazine “Eltern” (“Parents”), for which he photographed a birth in 1974. Schels describes the moment in the following terms: “For the first time I saw the face of a new-born human being. But it was not a being without history that was looking at me, but a face with a past, knowing, ancient…”. Since then, his preoccupation with faces has never left him.

Works

WALTER SCHELS

Schaf, 1984
Archival Pigment Print
50 x 40 cm | 19 3/4 x 15 3/4 in
Unlimited

WALTER SCHELS

Lias, 18 Jahre, 2016
Archival Pigment Print
40 x 40 cm | 15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in
Exhibition copy

WALTER SCHELS

Schaf, 1984
Archival Pigment Print
50 x 40 cm | 19 2/3 x 15 3/4 in
2/8

WALTER SCHELS

Blumenstrauß, 2009
Archival Pigment Print
80 x 65 cm | 31 1/2 x 25 2/3 in
1/6

WALTER SCHELS

Strauß, 2016
Archival Pigment Print
36 x 29 cm | 14 1/4 x 11 1/2 in
1/5

WALTER SCHELS

Blumenstrauß, 2009
Archival Pigment Print
80 x 65 cm | 31 1/2 x 25 2/3 in
1/6

SOLO Exhibition

  • WALTER SCHELS
Trans*
26. June – 31. July 2021

Video

Press Highlights