His portraits of friends, lovers and the youth surrounding him in cities such as Zurich, Paris and New York would link him to other photographers of that decade, such as Nan Goldin and Nobuyoshi Araki.
His work was then linked to the revival of realistic photography in the 1990s and early 2000s, with artists such as Wolfgang Tillmans, Ryan McGinley, Slava Mogutin, Heinz Peter Knes and Jack Pierson.
His first book of photographs, Walter Pfeiffer: 1970-1980, was published in 1980, followed a few years later by The eyes, the thoughts, ceaselessly wandering (Nachbar der Welt, 1986), but raised little attention.
Exhibitions of Walter Pfeiffer's photography have multiplied considerably in the past decade, due in part to his collaborations with magazines such as i-D and Vogue, but also the publications of his books by Hatje Cantz and other international publishers.
However, in the past few years, due to his work in the fashion industry, Pfeiffer has also photographed professional models such as Cara Delevingne, Karlie Kloss, Magdalena Frackowiak, Eva Herzigová, Francisco Lachowski and Lorcan Leather-Barrow.