The Blitz Kids
Tokyo: Super Labo, 2021.
ISBN: 9784908512490
Condition: Fine
Softcover
1,000 copies
SIGNED, 22 x 23 cm, 48 pp, 41 images
Herbie Yamaguchi’s unique document of London’s emerging New Romantic scene focused around Blitz nightclub in Covent Garden in 1979-1980. “Blitz Kids” as the pressed dubbed them were a group of young art and fashion students and musicians that attended the club hosted by Steve Strange (frontman for the band Visage) and DJ Rusty Egan. Emerging as a post-punk phenomena with an emphasis on style Strange enforced a strict dress code at the door and Blitz become the epicenter of the New Romantic movement known for its outrageous clothes and make-up. "…waiting in line all night long in the dead of winter to get inside, nobody was allowed to enter unless acquainted with their leader Steve Strange. Luckily, I was allowed to get inside thanks to the guidance of a friend who was close to them…..Their music made heavy use of synthesizers and abounded in futuristic nuances, coming to define the times by the mid-80s. I usually shot in monochrome film, but learning the importance of the colors they used, I started using Kodachrome color film. The cost of purchasing Kodachrome was a heavy blow to me, so in the Blitz, I took each and every photograph carefully, ..a select few of them at the core of the movement seemed to be inspiring each other and honing their art, hoping to grow into artists in the future. The punk movement that began in the mid-1970s, and this movement that followed. Perhaps all the British youth back then grew up receiving baptism from and passing through these two movements to a greater or lesser extent. This is why many Brits regard these times in London to be the most culturally stimulating era. Indeed, within a few years, many remarkable musicians and artists with a global presence emerged from the young crowd at the Blitz. I still relish the fortune I had to witness London as it was back then as a photographer.” Herbie Yamaguchi. Item #20446
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