Release year: 2012

Binding: Hardcover

Pages: 55 pages with 54 b&w images

Size: 14.96 x 9.64 x 0.39 in (38 x 24.5 x 1 cm)

Publisher: Bywater Bros. Editions in conjunction with the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Basel; Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art, New York and Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver

Condition: Good(vintage). Light wears on the pages as shown on the product photos

'Jeans' by Karlheinz Weinberger is a stunning collection of photos from the '50s and '60s, where young men in Zurich reinterpreted American fashion in unique and unexpected ways. These portraits, largely hidden from the world for decades, highlight Weinberger's talent for capturing the essence of masculinity and individuality. 

Commencing his career in the 1950s as a self-taught photographer working primarily for the gay underground Zurich club and magazine Der Kreis, Karlheinz Weinberger (1921–2006) took candid shots of lovers, friends and strangers on the street with an overt erotic investment in his subjects. He soon developed a fixation with the working-class youth culture known as the “Halbstark” (or “half strong”). Its members demonstrated their anti-establishment stance with embellished outfits of denim and leather, in an exaggerated and homemade version of the popularized American bad-boy style of the time. In his stark, posed photographs of these young rebels, Weinberger focuses on individual figures, exploring both a personal erotic obsession and the cultural symbolism of blue jeans, whose scarcity in post war Switzerland implied not just a fashion statement but a badge of pride.

“Jeans” focuses on individual portraiture and his fascination for men in blue jeans, an article of clothing whose scarcity in post-war Switzerland and close association with American pop stars implied more than just a fashion statement. Blue jeans were a badge of status, differentiation and rebellion for working class Swiss boys and girls dissatisfied with the conservative climate of the day.