Karlheinz Weinberger: Photographs 1954-1995

  • 0006-Karlheinz-Weinberger-Photos-1954-to-1995-Afterhours-Sleaze-and-Dignity1Karlheinz Weinberger’s book Photographs 1954-1995 is something of a favourite around these parts

    If I had to pick just one Afterhours releated book to rescue from a burning pile, well that would be a somewhat difficult task but I expect this would be quite near the top.

    Why? Well, the best parts of the book are a document of Swiss rock’n’roll rebels who became folk devils and got their societies knickers all in a twist back in the fifties.

    But these weren’t any ordinary fifty rockabilly types; to paraphrase the introduction, they had created their own version of rock’n’roll that made you think they had only ever experienced the original source via an out of tune radio; a reimagining all of their own rather than a recreation.

    0006-Karlheinz-Weinberger-Afterhours-Sleaze-and-Dignity-3-copy0006-Karlheinz-Weinberger-Afterhours-Sleaze-and-Dignity-4 copy

    Mr Weinberger’s work was in part founded in a homo-erotic interest and these photographs look a touch as though their inhabitants created Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising before it happened.

    But to my mind they’re more fascinating and intriguing as these are real life, self-created cartoon characters, ones who could have fallen through a time warp from a hair salon run by the dreams you could imagine The Cramps might have had.

    0006-Karlheinz-Weinberger-Afterhours-Sleaze-and-Dignity-2-copyThe book is now rare as hen’s teeth and just as pricey (thanks to my sister for tracking down a copy for me when it was still in print).

    There is another more easily available, more recent book, Rebel Youth, with a foreword by Mr John Waters, published by Rizzoli, peruse that one here and the various book/s here.

    Further background on the gent and Photographs 1954-1995 here.

     

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