Chargesheimer - Im Ruhrgebiet - 1958

ONE OF THE BEST GERMAN PHOTOBOOKS published after the war and
ONE OF THE VERY BEST BOOKS by the legendary German photographer "Chargesheimer".

TRUE FIRST AND ONLY PRINTING (this title was never reprinted) - with the scarce original dustjacket.
Book and dustjacket - in VERY FRESH CONDITION.

Very impressive photobook in PHOTOGRAVURE PRINTING and in BRILLIANT LAYOUT by the maker of
"Cologne 5.30" (Martin Parr, The Photobook, vol 1, page 223).
With text by Nobel Prize Winner Heinrich Böll.

TRUE FIRST ORIGINAL EDITION by Kiepenheuer and Witsch (not to mix with other editions at the same time).

Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne. 1958. First edition, first printing.

Linen with dustjacket. 245 x 305 cm. 149 black and white photographs. Photos: Chargesheimer. 121 pages with photos, 28 pages with text. Foreword by Heinrich Böll. Text in German.

Condition:
Book inside and outside super fresh (like new and unread) and much more fresher than usual; clean with no marks and with no foxing, (too) long flap of the content sheet at the end of the book like always with the usual crease. Dustjacket complete with no missing parts, with trace of use, but much fresher than usual; less rubbing at the edges than usual, teared at the spine (easily to restore with tape from behind). Overall fine, much better than usual condition.

Fantastic, scarce German photobook in the true original edition by Kiepenheuer and Witsch -
with the very scarce original dustjacket in fresh condition.

"Karl Heinz (also Carl-Heinz) Hargesheimer (1924-1971) was a German photographer who became known under the artist name Chargesheimer. Chargesheimer studied graphics and photography at the Cologne Werkschulen after the Second World War. He was interested in various arts, such as opera, theatre, stage design and costumes, as well as painting, but mainly in photography, within which he experimented with abstract light structures on photographic paper and photomontages from 1950 onwards.
From 1955 onwards, Chargesheimer worked as a freelance photographer and attracted attention both for his biting portraits of public figures and his true-to-life reportages about his fellow countrymen. He published 14 illustrated books on various subjects such as cities, landscapes and theatre. He also created meditation mills, moving sculptures made of acrylic glass.
After Chargesheimer had made a name for himself with the photo book Cologne intime (1957), the Spiegel publisher Rudolf Augstein ordered a portrait of Konrad Adenauer from him for the cover shortly before the 1957 Bundestag elections. In line with Augstein's hopes, the result was an image of a ‘mask-like face chiselled in granite, telling of political petrification and ageing’. The general outrage that followed made Chargesheimer famous throughout Germany.
Chargesheimer loved Cologne and was closely connected to the city throughout his life. He took a very critical view of the city's development during the reconstruction phase and also later on. The street he portrayed in 1958, Unter Krahnenbäumen, increasingly changed its character. In his last book, Köln 5 Uhr 30 (Cologne 5.30), he took a critical photographic stocktaking in 1970: "a melancholy swan song to “his” city of Cologne, which threatened to freeze in concrete."
The German Society for Photography (DGPh) in Cologne honoured Chargesheimer with its Culture Prize in 1968.
Friends of Chargesheimer portray him as a loner who sometimes made things difficult for himself and others, but who was very talented and could also be a generous person. He suffered greatly from the prevailing photographic industry, which did not allow him to think for himself and which dealt with his photos "like Germany at war with the Poles." This was one of the reasons why he turned to his meditation mills, for example, which were hardly noticed by the public. One of his wire sculptures was even destroyed by the public. Chargesheimer commented that this did not surprise him, he had not really expected anything else.
Chargesheimer was found dead in his flat at the beginning of January 1972 and was buried in Cologne's Melaten Cemetery. Subsequently, his grave was long thought to be untraceable; it was only rediscovered in the 2000s. From the late 1950s to the early 1960s, he lived with the actress Gisela Holzinger. Chargesheimer had been married to Ann Redlin (1940-1974) since 1963; the marriage was later divorced.
Redlin is also buried in the Melaten Cemetery."
(Wikipedia)