WEINBERGER, Karlheinz - Swiss Rebels

"Karlheinz WEINBERGER’s day job may have been relatively uneventful―working in a Siemens warehouse―but the photos he took in his spare time are anything but conformist.
WEINBERGER’s passion, and the focus of this book, 'Swiss rebels', is the rebel youth of 1950s and ’60s Switzerland, who channeled American rock-’n’-roll culture and made it their own with their rolled-up jeans and denim jackets, bouffant hairdos, striped T-shirts, and customized belts boasting images of Elvis and James Dean.
WEINBERGER’s lusty, free-spirited and self-confident portraits posit the defiant attitude of youth as a response to the conservative post-war era.
'Swiss Rebels' also includes homoerotic images of rockers, bikers, construction workers and athletes, many of whom occupy positions outside of social norms. This publication is the first to present an overview of Weinberger’s provocative oeuvre." (publisher's note)

... and relates to the publication 'Halbstarke' which is also available at Café Lehmitz Photobooks!

"The joy of a WEINBERGER photograph is in the fact that everyone is doing the most. Subtle is for someone else: here more is more. Big hair, big belt buckles, motorcycle clubs--everyone going their hardest to evoke American realness." (Miss ROSEN, Crave)

Exhibitions:
PHotoEspaña, Madrid, 31 May to 27 August 2017
Rencontres d’Arles, 3 July to 24 September 2017
Mérignac Photographic Festival, 5 October to 31 December 2017
Kornhaus Bern, 2018

About the photographer, Karlheinz WEINBERGER (*1921-2000):
Karlheinz Weinberger was a Swiss photographer whose work predominantly explores outsider cultures and turns its back on conservative middle-class values.
Between 1943 and 1967 WEINBERGER published photos of male workers, sportsmen and bikers in the gay magazine Der Kreis under the pseudonym of Jim, taken from Hanns EISLER’s song The Ballad of Jim.
In the late 50s and early 60s he concentrated on Swiss rock-’n’-roll youth whom he photographed with tenderness and a hint of irony.
Although a passionate amateur photographer over six decades, WEINBERGER placed little emphasis on exhibiting his work; his first comprehensive show took place only in 2000, six years before his death.