Karlheinz Weinberger: Swiss Rebels

Karlheinz Weinberger’s day job may have been relatively uneventful ― working in a Siemen’s warehouse ― but the photos he took in his spare time are anything but conformist.

Weinberger’s passion, and the focus of this book, is the rebel youth of 1950s and ’60s Switzerland, who channelled American rock-’n’-roll culture and made it their own with their rolled-up jeans and denim jackets, bouffant hairdos, striped T-shirts, and customized belts boasting images of Elvis and James Dean.

Weinberger’s lusty, free-spirited and self-confident portraits posit the defiant attitude of youth as a response to the conservative post-war era. Swiss Rebels also includes homoerotic images of rockers, bikers, construction workers and athletes, many of whom occupy positions outside of social norms.

This publication is the first to present an overview of Weinberger’s provocative oeuvre.