Arnold Odermatt worked as the official police photographer in the Swiss canton of Nidwalden for over forty years. He documented car crashes and to accompany written accident reports, and then shot his separate images of the scenes for his own aesthetic interests. Odermatt also photographed his fellow officers going about their daily police work. After he retired in 1990, the photographs were discovered by his son, Urs, who began to exhibit the work and bring it to the attention of the art world. The photographs are now acclaimed for their formal properties and documentary-like quality.
