Although it has to be canceled this year due to the coronavirus, this does not diminish the popularity of the Munich Oktoberfest. With the book "Oktoberfest", Slanted Publishers has published a tribute to the world's biggest folk festival. The photographs by Volker Derlath are reminiscent of a time of intoxication, chicken and fairground rides as well as celebrating people from all over the world.
Munich photographer Volker Derlath has never missed a Oktoberfest in three and a half decades. What's more, he spent it with his camera right in the middle of the action, fascinated by the festival's life of its own. It reminds him "with its incomparable coarseness of the popular amusements of the Middle Ages", he says.
The photographs that Derlath has taken over the last 35 years are theatrically staged by life itself. Exuberant scenes with celebrating, ecstatic to passionate people. In the field of tension between joie de vivre and delirium, each picture is actually a snapshot in itself. What better way to remember the exuberance of the previous life in this year marked by Corona? Slanted Publishers are publishing the photo book and have launched a campaign to finance it.
The book has already been designed by Lars Harmsen and Florian Brugger. The campaign is to pay for the materials for printing the books as well as the printer and bookbinder, who will ensure the sustainability and print quality of the work. The conception of the book was preceded by intensive discussions with the photographer Volker Derlath. They resulted in a dramaturgy that depicts a typical visit to the Wiesn in an exciting way, according to the publishers: "The way into the marquee, the first beer, the rising mood up to ecstasy, the comedy and lack of inhibitions - and finally the exhaustion, the end of the evening."
The photo book is elaborately produced in duo-tone so that the appearance of the images comes as close as possible to the quality of the original prints, as the two designers from Melville Design describe it: "Derlath has remained true to his beginnings with this project: he has been attending the folk festival with his Pentax LX, flash and Ilford film for 35 years. Working through the night, the negatives are then printed by hand on high-quality baryta paper. A masterful piece of work!"
Click herefor the campaign.