"There is no beer in heaven, so we drink it here," read a sign at the entrance to Café Lehmitz. The night held endless promises for the regular clientele of one of the busiest slums in the Reeperbahn red light district, Hamburg. A place of survival for pimp sailors, prostitutes, drug addicts, homeless, and a whole cohort of people from bad living, who, together with some of the residents of the neighborhood, met there. Dancing, having a drink, smoking a few cigarettes, not thinking, chatting, meditating, and why not also sleeping, while the music comes out of the jukebox ... after all, everyone was looking for the same thing: escape, in that club that invited each one, without half measures, to show his true face.
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PHOTO GALLERY: The secret of Café Lehmitz
There Anders Petersen (Sweden, 1944), in 1967, who, over three years, portrayed the uninhibited protagonists of the place, counting on his complicity and camaraderie. It was his first major photographic work, and would end up becoming a reference within its genre, brought together in 1978 in a monograph entitled Café Lehmitz . Five decades later, consolidated as one of the key names in Swedish photography, the author has revised the series, bringing new images to light. Thus, under the title of Color Lehmitz, an exhibition shows previously unpublished portraits, together with the contact sheets of the legendary series, accompanied by the author's comments.
It can be seen at the Fotografiska Center in Stockholm from March 13 to May 31. “The exhibition does not allow observing the decisions made by the photographer. Get to know him, as well as the people he portrays, ”says Angie Åström, curator of the show. The author is known for working regularly in black and white, but the term color refers to the color markings made by the artist on contact sheets that he has been working with over the years. Notes made without any artistic but practical intention, but which undoubtedly reinforce the character of the work. "Sometimes there is more color in black and white images than in color images," says Petersen. "When you are not blocked by the colors of reality, it is easier to make use of personal experiences and fantasies, and then add any particular color you want."
He visited Hamburg for the first time during his adolescence, in 1962, trying to escape the restrictive and gentrified environment in which he had educated. At first he wanted to be a painter, but he found it too solitary for his more socialized character. Hence, he will opt for fashion photography. Until one day he found an image that turned out to be a turning point: it showed a lonely snowy cemetery. A visitor's footprints had been marked on the ground. "I remember thinking that the photographer would have risen early to capture how the dead gathered there at night," says the photographer. A little later he learned that its author was Christer Strömholm, who became his teacher.
He would return to Hamburg later, hoping to meet his former colleagues and photograph them. But many of them had left. Others had died, victims of drug addiction. It was her friend Gertrud, initially suspicious, who one night agreed to introduce him to Café Lehmitz. There, distracted, he put his camera on a table. When he missed her, he passed from hand to hand among the amusing clientele at the bar. When recovering the machine it was animated to shoot. He would not stop doing it for the next three years. “People have always interested me. Her contradictions, her innocence, and the multiple layers of confusion she identified in her. Observing it makes me think that our secret dreams and deepest longings govern us much more than what we refer to as reality, ”says the author.
The human warmth is felt in this series that draws the viewer's gaze with force, immediately immersing him in a relaxed atmosphere, where both the closeness that the author established with his protagonists and the respect with which he portrayed them are perceived. It is in their condition of outcasts that the dignity and soul of the place is reflected. "For me it was like a school," says the photographer. "People always told me that as a photographer you had to be strong. But it was a mistake. I learned that you have to be weak. Enough to feel. To be open to circumstances and remain curious. To feel attracted to the hidden and the secret. Weak also to need others and that they contribute to make sense of existence.
The photographic series became popular when in 1985 Tom Waits used one of the images for his album Rain Dogs . Today the work still retains the same freshness. Reviewing it has been "like meeting an old friend who I haven't seen in a long time," says the author. “I recognize in her the same energy and the same aroma. The people of the Lehmitz had a presence and a sincerity that I myself lacked. Everything was worth. The same, being desperate and sitting alone as sharing company. I remember the great warmth and tolerance of the place ”. Andersen was accepted there as one more. Hence, he abandoned the status of voyeur, who usually accompanies every photographer. “As a photographer it is difficult for me to stick to reason. My work is intuitive and I need empathy and maintain a closeness with the subject. That is precisely what interests me, the images themselves are less important to me ”.
“Café Lehmitz was a very special place. It was like a living room, and sometimes a residence for older people, who had spent their lives working hard for the entertainment industry in Hamburg, ”recalls the author. There, the joy always accompanied the drama and that is palpable in this work that reveals a tenderness that is out of the ordinary and invites the viewer to see himself through the reflection of others. His absence of pessimism also stands out. “In no way do I intend to give the place a romantic component, since the circumstances were different. But there was a certain sense of universal togetherness, and the feeling of being someone there. Something that is missing from the trendy bars of today, often well lit. It is something that many of us long for, but rarely does our culture offer us the tools so that we can truly connect with each other. ” Cafe Lehmitz's clientele at least tried. They defied time living that moment as if there would never be another like it.
Lehmitz coffee. Anders Petersen. Fotografiska. Stockholm. Until May 31.