![]() We see bride and groom, the Rolls Royce hired for the day and a shot of the couple in their marriage bed. The final shoot was the wedding of Bukowski and Linda in August 1985. We have drunk Bukowski, a sliver of the hostile, arrogant, lecherous drunk that acquaintances were accustomed to and wary of – yet, here, Bukowski is his other self more in jest than earnest. We see the man unshackled from boredom and the routine of a professional writer with a fiancée, a mortgage and a BMW, allowed to play freely. In his mugging for the camera, Bukowski acts very similarly to how Picasso acted in his photoshoots of the 1960s, which Bukowski must have seen. He strips off his shirt and he brandishes a knife. He draws his famous cartoon figures at giant size and poses with them. ![]() In the second shoot, Bukowski puts on Linda’s hat and glasses. The obscure historical asides and literary references in Bukowski’s verse demonstrate the writer’s time spent as a reader. Bukowski was as much a reader and (in his youth) a frequenter of libraries as he was barroom brawler. Much of Bukowski’s power as a writer resides not in the declamatory, erotic and comic modes rather, it lies in the thoughtful, reflective and tender side of the man, which does not undercut his dry humour, clear-sightedness and lack of false sentimentality. This is Bukowski’s subdued self, his sensitive and introspective side. (Bukowski preferred classical music to rock music.) We get a sense of Bukowski’s normal life and environment: working, smoking, drinking, under his lemon tree, with and without Linda. Next to the electric typewriter is a lamp and a radio. We see his office, dirty, chaotic and comfortable, chair at the desk facing a blank wall, books, magazines and manuscripts in profusion. The first shoot has Bukowski at work (or mimicking it), drinking at a garden table during an evidently not warm day. This captures a wide range of moods and aspects. The Shooting reproduces photographs from all three days. The ceremony was performed by Linda’s guru (she was a Buddhist) and the day proved memorable for all, with Bukowski getting very drunk. Frajndlich agreed to take a set of photographs for the couple, himself and a patron. He invited Frajndlich to his wedding in August. When the feature was published, Bukowski received copies and was delighted with the result. Frajndlich believed his career was on the line and Bukowski wanted to help him out they tapped into Bukowski’s irreverent side. Bukowski and Frajndlich decided to play up the author’s wild-man reputation with props, humour, play acting and excess. The second shoot had to be something special. The first had been low-key, unintrusive: Bukowski typing in the garden, in his office, with Linda. The photo shoot on 1 April was quite a different affair. He half-begged, half-bullied Bukowski into letting him return for a second session. Frajndlich was crestfallen and desperate to make emends. They were mere documentation and provided nothing exciting or visually powerful. He told Frajndlich that the photographs were too poor to be used. “Although most of the house was clean and tidy, his working room was complete, but creative, mess, with papers strewn about, beer and wine bottles and magazines lying about helter-skelter, and manuscripts over and under the desk and on the floor.” However, when he submitted the images, the picture editor rejected them all. On 4 and 5 March, the photographer spent time with the couple in their house in San Pedro, California he photographed the couple and Bukowski alone. He recounts in his essay his time with Bukowski and his fiancée Linda Lee Beighle. Frajndlich used a personal contact to persuade the reluctant Bukowski to give him one day. Bukowski: The Shooting is the illustrated story of four days a young photographer spent with Bukowski.Ībe Frajndlich – a German-American professional photographer – got the assignment. In 1985 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Magazin finally managed to get Bukowski – who was an increasingly well-known author in Germany – to agree to have his picture taken for a feature. His novels won critical acclaim and a cult following, not just in the USA but also Germany, with his works being translated into other languages yearly. He had appeared on radio and television and a documentary had already been made about him. For decades he had published stories, poems and columns in the underground press and men’s magazines. During the 1970s he had filled university halls with his poetry readings. His verse – curt, pungent, profane, grand – spoke to many, even those who usually did not read poetry. As king of the West Coast underground poetry scene, Bukowski was a critical figure in the counter culture, on the verge of entering the mainstream. By the mid-1980s, Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) was already both famous and infamous.
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