Nabokov

«It was in 1962 that the photographer Horst Tappe first met Vladimir Nabokov at the Montreux Palace Hotel in Switzerland where Nabokov resided while penning his great novels Pale Fire and Ada or Ardor. Nabokov: Photographs by Horst Tappe(2) Nabokov: Photographs by Horst Tappe(1) click images for large view Until Nabokov’s death in 1977, Tappe photographed the world-renowned author of Lolita in private as well as on the Swiss mountain slopes catching butterflies (Nabokov once stated «My pleasures are the most intense known to man: writing and butterfly hunting»). These remarkable photographs reveal a man going about his daily tasks — a man with a purpose, a man of passion who was both stubborn and charming. They depict the author bent over his writing desk, lost in quiet contemplation, out for a stroll (as solitary walker or accompanied by his wife Vera) and, of course, exuberantly hunting those beloved butterflies.»