Anders Petersen's best photograph: the denizens of Cafe Lehmitz
Lilly, Rose & Scar. Cafe Lehmitz, Hamburgo, 1970. Anders Petersen
Anders Petersen: "Era la una de la madrugada y yo esperaba a mi amiga Gertrude en el Café Lehmitz de Hamburgo. El sitio estaba hasta los topes de gente y sonaba buena música en el jukebox. Era 1967. Un tipo se me acercó y me preguntó por mi cámara, que estaba sobre la mesa. Era una Nikon F y le dije que era una buena cámara. Me dijo: "tengo una mejor". La suya era una Kodak Retina 1C. Levantamos nuestras cervezas y brindamos por las cámaras. Luego bailamos con algunas lindas señoritas.
De repente, en el otro lado de la sala, reparé en un grupo de gente que se lanzaba mi cámara los unos a los otros, tomándose fotos. Me acerqué y les dije: "por favor háganme una foto a mí también porque es mi cámara." De acuerdo, dijeron, y me la devolvieron. Entonces tomé yo también algunas fotos y así es como empecé a hacer fotos en el Café Lehmitz.
Estuve haciendo fotos durante los próximos tres años, viajando de vez en cuando a Estocolmo, donde estudiaba fotografía, para revelar los carretes. Dormía en la cocina del Café gratuitamente a cambio de hacer de canguro para los peques. Mi tiempo ahí fue definitivamente formativo. El Café incluso albergó mi primera exposición: colgué 350 fotos y aclaré que si alguien se reconocía en alguna de las fotos podía descolgarla y quedársela. Pasados unos días no quedaba ni una.
Esta foto en concreto va de personalidad. Lilly era la preferida de todos, una mujer carismática - muchos hombres estaban prendados de ella, y lo sabía. Al tipo de la izquierda se le solía llamar Rose por su tatuaje en el pecho. Estaba bien vestido porque acababa de salir del trabajo, un restaurante que estaba a unos 10 minutos. Cada noche volvía al Café Lehmitz para encontrarse con sus amigos, pero sobre todo para ver a Lilly. Rose era un tipo serio, y sólo tenía ojos para ella. Lilly estaba molesta conmigo cuando tomé esta foto porque había estado sacándole demasiadas fotos. Me dijo: "¿No te puedes comportar como un tipo normal y simplemente tomar una cerveza como todo el mundo? ¿Tienes que estar haciendo fotos todo el rato? ¡Por favor, ya basta!" ¿Veis al tipo bajito del fondo? Ese es Scar. Era un famoso traga-sables. Le gustaba presumir de su oficio y se metía en un montón de peleas a causa de ello - pero aún así era un buen tipo. Tom Waits usó una de mis fotos de Rose y Lilly en la portada de su álbum Rain Dogs. Rose está en esa foto sin camiseta, apoyado en Lilly que se reía de la actitud melodramática de él. Accedí cuando la discográfica me lo propuso porque me gusta la música de Tom. Nos conocimos y lo pasamos bien - hablamos el mismo lenguaje.
En el Café había todo tipo de gente, locales, gente del puerto y los alrededores y también muchas prostitutas de la zona de Sant Pauli. Iba mucha gente mayor que llevaba una vida dura y no encajaba en ningún otro sitio. Hice cientos de fotos - es como un álbum familiar - pero esta es especial. Me gustan estos tres personajes y se muestran como son."
C.V.:
Nacido en Estocolmo, Suecia.
Estudió en la Escuela Christer Strömholm de fotografía de Estocolmo.
Momento álgido/bajo: "Ninguno. Diría que algo entre medias. Me siento bien cuando hago fotos, pero las hay buenas y malas."
Máxima: "La gente siempre dice que hay que ser fuerte. Pero, para mí, hay que ser débil, lo suficientemente débil para sentir, involucrarse, ser como eres. No seas fuerte, sé débil."
Anders Petersen: "It was one in the morning and I was waiting for my friend Gertrude at Cafe Lehmitz
in Hamburg. The place was chock full of people and there was great
music playing on the jukebox. It was 1967. A man came up to me and asked
about my camera, which was on the table. It was a Nikon F and I said it was a good camera. He said: "I have a nicer one." His was a Kodak Retina 1C. We raised our beers and said cheers to the cameras. Then we danced with some beautiful ladies.
Suddenly,
across the room, I noticed a group of people were throwing my camera
back and forth, taking pictures of each other. I went over and said:
"Please take a picture of me because it's my camera." OK, they said,
then handed it back. So I took some pictures of my own – and that was
how I started photographing in Cafe Lehmitz.
I kept taking shots there for the next three years, travelling back and forth to Stockholm, where I was studying photography, to develop my film. At the cafe, I would sleep in the kitchen for free, in exchange for looking after the cook's children. My time there was very formative. The cafe even staged my first exhibition: I pinned 350 pictures above the bar and said if anyone recognised themselves they could take the picture down and keep it. After a few days the walls were empty.
This picture is all about the personalities. Lilly was everyone's darling, a charismatic woman – many men were in love with her, and she knew it. The man on the left was known as Rose because of the tattoo on his chest. He was well dressed because he had come from work, a restaurant 10 minutes away. Every night, he would come to Cafe Lehmitz to see his friends, but mostly to see Lilly. Rose was a serious guy, and he only had eyes for her. Lilly was angry with me when I took this picture because I had been photographing her so much. She said: "Can't you just behave like normal – have a beer and be like everyone else? Do you have to take pictures all the time? Please finito, now!" You see the little guy behind her? That is Scar. He was a very famous sword-swallower. He talked about it a lot and he got into a lot of fights – but he was still a nice man.
Tom Waits used one of my shots of Rose and Lilly on the cover of his Rain Dogs album. Rose is bare-chested in it, leaning against Lilly who is laughing hard because he's being so melodramatic. I said yes when the record company asked, because I like Tom's music. We met and had a nice time – we talk the same language.
All sorts of people went to Cafe Lehmitz: locals, people from the harbour and surrounding cities, as well as a lot of elderly prostitutes from the St Pauli area. Old people went there who had had a hard life and were not accepted anywhere else. I took hundreds of photographs – it's like a family album – but this one is special. I like these three characters and they are being themselves."
CV:
Born: Stockholm, Sweden, 1944.
Studied: Christer Strömholm's School of Photography, Stockholm.
Influences: Christer Strömholm, Ed van der Elsken's Love on the Left Bank, Robert Frank.
High/low point: "I don't have them. It's something in between. I feel good when I'm shooting, but it goes up and down all the time."
Top tips: "People always talk about having to be strong. But for me, you have to be weak – weak enough to feel, to be involved, to be as you are. Don't be strong, be weak."
[The Guardian: My best shot]
I kept taking shots there for the next three years, travelling back and forth to Stockholm, where I was studying photography, to develop my film. At the cafe, I would sleep in the kitchen for free, in exchange for looking after the cook's children. My time there was very formative. The cafe even staged my first exhibition: I pinned 350 pictures above the bar and said if anyone recognised themselves they could take the picture down and keep it. After a few days the walls were empty.
This picture is all about the personalities. Lilly was everyone's darling, a charismatic woman – many men were in love with her, and she knew it. The man on the left was known as Rose because of the tattoo on his chest. He was well dressed because he had come from work, a restaurant 10 minutes away. Every night, he would come to Cafe Lehmitz to see his friends, but mostly to see Lilly. Rose was a serious guy, and he only had eyes for her. Lilly was angry with me when I took this picture because I had been photographing her so much. She said: "Can't you just behave like normal – have a beer and be like everyone else? Do you have to take pictures all the time? Please finito, now!" You see the little guy behind her? That is Scar. He was a very famous sword-swallower. He talked about it a lot and he got into a lot of fights – but he was still a nice man.
Tom Waits used one of my shots of Rose and Lilly on the cover of his Rain Dogs album. Rose is bare-chested in it, leaning against Lilly who is laughing hard because he's being so melodramatic. I said yes when the record company asked, because I like Tom's music. We met and had a nice time – we talk the same language.
All sorts of people went to Cafe Lehmitz: locals, people from the harbour and surrounding cities, as well as a lot of elderly prostitutes from the St Pauli area. Old people went there who had had a hard life and were not accepted anywhere else. I took hundreds of photographs – it's like a family album – but this one is special. I like these three characters and they are being themselves."
CV:
Born: Stockholm, Sweden, 1944.
Studied: Christer Strömholm's School of Photography, Stockholm.
Influences: Christer Strömholm, Ed van der Elsken's Love on the Left Bank, Robert Frank.
High/low point: "I don't have them. It's something in between. I feel good when I'm shooting, but it goes up and down all the time."
Top tips: "People always talk about having to be strong. But for me, you have to be weak – weak enough to feel, to be involved, to be as you are. Don't be strong, be weak."
[The Guardian: My best shot]
