“AUTHENTIC WHIFF OF DOWNBEAT URBAN LIFE”

PETERSEN, Anders. Café Lehmitz. (Munich): Schirmer Mosel, (1978). Square octavo, original white stiff paper wrappers, original photographic dust jacket. $1900.

First edition of this hard-hitting, diaristic look at the regulars of a local Hamburg taproom, with 88 candid photogravures of riotous and amorous barroom antics, signed by Petersen.

Petersen frequented the Café Lehmitz for two years, gaining the trust of his subjects while shooting this photo-essay on the bar's local clientele, comprised of "older prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers and assorted hustlers… a cast that graces one of the finest photobooks of the decade… an authentic whiff of downbeat urban life" (Parr & Badger, 231). In Petersen's words, "it was the end of the road for many who congregated there." Open Book, 318.

Light toning to margins of original dust jacket. A fine copy, signed.