He began his career when color photography was still rare in magazines as it took so long to develop. Peter Knapp (91) is currently sitting at a table at the Swiss Photo Foundation in Winterthur, where visitors can view about 70 of his 700 productions of approximately 300 square meters from October 29 to February 12. He wears a short stand-up denim shirt, sneakers, and sand-colored trousers. Dressing in such a “young” way and not disguising – only someone like him who never follows major social trends, but sets them can do it.
Born in Bäretswil ZH, Knapp worked as art director and photographer for “Elle” in Paris in the sixties – and later in the seventies. At that time, the magazine had a weekly circulation of one million and played a key role in transforming fashion, and with it society. The decisive factor was that for the first time, stylish clothing was no longer just made-to-measure, but as ready-to-wear collections. “Elle” has made this garment delicious to a wide variety of consumers.
Bigger strides thanks to shorter skirts
Knapp says that unlike haute couture, ready-to-wear fashion only looks good when women act in it. This was also his great innovation: He staged models dynamically, not in rigid poses. He photographed models from above, for example, lying on an oversized overhead projector and pretending to swim or jump into the water, as they were then called for the swimsuit shoot. The result was an image of weightless elegance.
He photographed the first collections of André Courrèges (1923-2016), one of the inventors of the mini skirt in the mid-1960s. Knapp says he was the first designer to prioritize a garment’s function over its form. Courrèges’ sewing of short skirts had something to do with the increasingly deepening of cars – and women no longer had to fear that their underwear would be visible when they walked in. “But women in short skirts take longer strides when running.” In Knapps fashion campaigns, you could see women walking alone at night and not wearing gloves – a sensation at the time. All of this fit into the spirit of women’s liberation, which was just beginning.
Photos have snapshot character
Knapp originally wanted to become a pilot, but later completed his graphic course at the Zurich School of Applied Arts. At the age of twenty he moved to Paris to study painting. To earn money, he worked, among other things, as the artistic director of the Lafayette store. At one point, “Elle” founder Hélène Lazareff (1909-1988) became aware of him and hired him. Knapp: “He said: Spontaneously stage the women like you’re taking a picture of your girlfriend.”
The son of an art-loving housewife and a chess-loving Bührle employee, he married as a young man Sonja Knapp (80), who later became co-founder of the Ungaro fashion house. His second wife, Christine, to whom he had been married for 40 years, died two years ago.
Based in Paris and Kloster GR, Knapp has devoted himself more and more to painting and film since his heyday as art director. In 2021, the Federal Office of Culture awarded him the Swiss Grand Prix Design. “I’m lucky to make as much money as I can get by with everything I can.”
Exhibition «Peter Knapp – Mon temps». 29 October 2022 – 12 February 2023, Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur