Zurich-based artist Raffael Waldner (*1972) has been developing an extensive and complex body of work called "Car Crash Studies" for ten years. The object of his artistic research is the world of sports and luxury cars. He is interested in the relics that are left by accidents in these expensive vehicles. Using his camera, he systematically documents the results of such chance accidents, the wrecked cars as well as the places of their occurrence.
This activity has led to an entire series of photographs, currently over 300 subjects in all. Caught on camera, his arrangements of scrap can be understood as nature mortes—the cruel still lifes of a society that puts its faith in technology and mobility, symbols of loss and death.
Published 2010 by JRP-Ringier, Zurich, Switzerland