As Grant Price awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a man with an essay published in Litro Magazine. I have wanted to contribute to this magazine for a couple of years now, so to something of mine in print and online is fantastic. This piece is called “Petersen’s Ghosts”, and it is about how German municipal policy has failed to help the poor and deprived in Hamburg in the 50 years since the seminal photobook, Café Lehmitz, was released by Anders Petersen in the mid-1970s. As a bonus, this essay was an ‘Editor’s Pick’, which I shall grasp at and hold on to like it’s pure gold.
YOU CAN READ IT HERE (FORMATTED FOR MOBILE)
A quote from the piece:
I stare at the derelicts and the forgotten who have burrowed deep into the seams of this road. Here are Petersen’s ghosts, hiding in plain sight. The difference is they have nowhere to go. In his photos, the hopeless came together, swathed in shirts and ties, dresses and heels, in search of camaraderie. If you squint, they could be movie stars. Today is pure chaos. The hopeless are strewn across the city, homelessness rising, tent cities under bridges and overpasses. There is no togetherness. No community.
The essay features photographs by the talented Daniel Montenegro, who is a fellow alumnus of the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie in Berlin.
I am grateful that Daniel’s works are there to elevate my own.
Also thanks to Anders Petersen for signing off on the content (one of his photos from Café Lehmitz is below).
