How people with similar interests spend their free time

Saturday morning. it’s almost noon. I’m standing in line at a department store cash register. There are people in front of me. There are people behind me. People of different shapes and sizes. And for this brief moment in time, in the fading hours of a Saturday morning, we are united by the desire to leave the store and get on with our lives. What will these people do after they’ve finished shopping? How will they use their Saturday? And what about Sunday? How do they spend their free time? Curious about the lives of others, Swiss photographers Ursula Sprecher and Andi Cortellini spent time with people who are drawn to each other by their shared interests. The result is the series, HobbyBuddies, a visual feast of group portraits of men and women in Switzerland who revel in the delightful, the absurd and the unique. A lot of thought, research and organisation went into HobbyBuddies, which has been exhibited internationally, and published as a book by German art book publisher Kehrer Verlag. Each of these staged pictures was taken at a carefully selected location where the backdrop and scenery were built and arranged to best showcase a group’s shared interest. The photographers planned every little detail, from the number of subjects in a frame to the clothes they are wearing and the props they are holding. Nothing was left to chance. These are images that need no words. This approach results in unusual, intriguing and, in some cases, even perplexing images and compositions.

Dintefisch Diving Club
Every Wednesday in summer, Dintefisch Diving Club members from Basel dive together in a public outdoor swimming pool. On weekends, they often visit one of Switzerland’s many lakes to indulge their passion. They continue their training in indoor pools in winter