Who Will Love The Rebels?

The original lost boys weren’t vampires. They weren’t from the 80s, and no – they weren’t American. They hailed from Switzerland in the early 60s; their era far less surprising than their origin.

A collection of photographs by the late Karlheinz Weinberger captures them in Intimate Stranger – current exhibition at Swiss Institute, NYC.

Weinberger began photographing gangs of Switzerland youth in 1958; teenagers tired of postwar conservatism; self-proclaimed rebels, you know the story. What makes this familiar tale fresh is their dedicated emulation of American pop culture icons: Marlon Brando, James Dean and Elvis. And rebel or not, isn’t that what being a teenager is all about? Re-creating illusions of identity in hope of developing one yourself?

Their defiant self-image is expressed through customised clothing – hard-core enough to make any mid 70s punk jealous. Rebellion has always dressed in denim, and Weinberger’s boys not only wear it tight, they’ve ripped out their zippers and knotted their jeans together with string, nuts and bolts. Metal horseshoes hang around their hips, kerchiefs knot around their shins. Brass wrestling-style belts strapped to their stomachs read ELVIS in handmade holes. Close-up crotch shots characterise Weinberger’s trademark of erotic male imagery. It only makes sense his works’ combination of sex, youth and style made an impression on the fashion industry; Meisel and Margiela both claim Weinberger’s influence.

Intimate Stranger not only suggests the relationship between Weinberger and his subject, or the teens’ idolisation for the foreign and famous – it rings true between the viewer and the pictured individual. There is something fascinating, almost familiar about these kids; each image a tender glimpse into some wild thing; a reminder of the fiery nature of youth, a reminder of what burns softly inside of us all.

By Amy Fraser, also found at onislands.tumblr.com

Images courtesy of www.swissinstitute.net