Chargesheimer - Im Ruhegebiet - 1958

Along with Unter Krahenbaumen and Koln 5Uhr 30 (see Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook, Vol.1, p.223) Im Ruhrgebeit is one of Chargesheimer's most influential photobooks. Documenting the Ruhr in the 1950s, Chargesheimer and Heinrich Boll's portrayal of the region and it's people was met with fierce political and public criticism when it was first published because it didn't conform to the prevailing idea of a thriving West Germany economy rebuilding it's industrial power after the war.

As Weigand and Heiting note: "In addition to Unter Krahnenbaumen, this book gave another reason for a collaboration between Chargesheimer and Heinrich Boll. After the publication of the book, both the text and the author of the pictures were fiercely attacked by politicians because the depiction – portrait or passport photo with a subjectivist tendency towards ugliness – was unembellished. The blurb of the publisher's edition reads as follows: "The result is a book that portrays the people and the landscape of this huge melting pot without pathos and false heroism." Chargesheimer's photographers and Heinrich Boll's text seek authenticity and uniqueness for him. "In an open letter formulated in response to accusations by the mayor of Essen, publisher Witsch explained: "We did not want to serve either the tourist offices or the offices for economic development. We wanted a book from the Ruhr area. Not a nice book in which the black territory is rewritten into the green one, garnished with lakes and dams. Others are called to do this. We wanted a book by people and not a book of the building and settlement cooperatives, and nothing else that could be evaluated."

This is an outstanding example of documentary photography at its best. Very highly recommended title. 149 black and white photographs with 28 pages of text by Nobel Prize winning author Heinrich Boll.

Included in Thomas Weigand and Manfred Heiting: Deutschland im Fotobuch, p.436-439

Condition:
Very good first edition copy in original dust jacket. Small bump to corner but pages unaffected. Small hole in the middle of the dust jacket. General edgewear to dust jacket, particularly at top and bottom of spine. Interior clean and fresh. Please examine listing photos carefully.