Rüdiger Trautsch, who was closely associated with the Café TucTuc from 1979 to 1981, studied photography at the Academy of Fine Arts during that time. For his thesis project, “Hardly Anyone Did It Out of Love!”, he staged scenes from the everyday life of an ordinary gay man (Martin Dannecker and Reimut Reiche).
The large-format booklet feels substantial in the hand; with ample white space and a deliberately balanced placement of text and images, Trautsch gives his protagonist Reinhold—a middle-aged window dresser—the space he needs to stroll through the IGA wearing makeup, receive a visit from his aunt, cruise through parks and cruising spots, and dance through the nightlife in a grand evening gown. A touching portrait.
The publication appeared in 1981 from material-Verlag at the HFBK Hamburg. A good insight into Trautsch’s work is provided by the zine created for a 2023 retrospective, featuring an essay by Peter Rehberg. Given that Reinhold was apparently able to go public with his homosexuality so effortlessly, I envisioned a model report on homosexual emancipation that would serve as a photo-text documentation for discussion among gay activist groups. For over a year, I took photos and conducted interviews with Reinhold, gaining a completely different perspective from close up—images that still reveal despair even when attempting a joyful break from internalized bourgeois morality, an attempt that ultimately leads only to a dead end.
– Rüdiger Trautsch
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