Karlheinz Weinberger: Photographs

This landmark entry in the lifework of Zürich photographer Karlheinz Weinberger gathers more than 200 vintage photographic prints published here for the first time. This unique collection pairs images of Weinberger’s most famous subjects, the “Halbstarke” – a loosely organised group of Swiss “rebels" – with a much more private side of Weinberger’s oeuvre: solo portraits of men whom he invited into his makeshift studio in the rooms of the apartment he shared with his mother.The men in these portraits—construction workers, street vendors, bicycle messengers, outsiders—span a spectrum of fully clothed, arms-crossed poses to campy and flirtatious, fully nude and reclined, while others mimic art historical postures. All of these images, though, reveal a palpable tenderness between photographer and subject, offering an expansive, uncritical take on the male form in an era when being photographed was not the casual, ubiquitous record it is today. Though not a professional photographer (he worked as a warehouse stock manager), Weinberger captured his subjects with a distinctly gay male gaze, both carnal and artistic, and this collection is certain to earn his work a larger following and appreciation. Born in 1921, Karlheinz Weinberger was a Swiss photographer whose work predominantly explored outsider cultures. Between 1943 and 1967 Weinberger published photos of male workers, sportsmen and bikers in the gay magazine Der Kreis under the pseudonym of “Jim.” In the late ‘50s and early ‘60s he concentrated on Swiss rock ’n’ roll youth, whom he photographed with both tenderness and a hint of irony. Weinberger placed little emphasis on exhibiting his work; his first comprehensive show took place only in 2000, six years before his death.
ISBN 9781734035117. The Song Cave. pb. 230 pages. 215 b/w ills. 14 x 19 cm.
reprinting