222x245x20 mm, hard cover, 132 pages
Text by Roger Anderson (English and German)
Signed

2013 reprint of the legendary book by Anders Petersen, originally published in 1978 by the same publisher.

Anders Petersen photographed from 1967 to 1970 the life of a café in the city of Hamburg in Germany, this series entitled Café Lehmitz will make him known worldwide.

Café Lehmitz, a beer joint at the Reeperbahn, was a meeting point for many who worked in Hamburg's red-light district: prostitutes, transvestites, workers, and petty criminals. Anders Petersen was 18 years old when he first visited Hamburg in 1962, chanced upon Café Lehmitz, and established friends that made an impact on his life. In 1968 he returned to Lehmitz, found new regulars, renewed contact and began to take pictures. His photographs, which were published in book form for the first time in 1978, have become classics of their genre. Their candidness and authenticity continue to move the viewer. The solidarity evident in them prevents voyeurism or false pity arising vis-à-vis milieu generally referred to as asocial. The other world of Café Lehmitz, which no longer exists in this form, becomes visible as a lively community with its own self-image and dignity.