KARACHI: Germany’s golden age of punk music, the 1980s, was under focus at a talk and lecture held at the Goethe Institut on Saturday. At an event titled ‘Being there — punk as photography’, visiting photographer and co-founder of the German music magazine Spex, Wolfgang Burat was interviewed by Dr Markus Heidingsfelder, who teaches at Habib University and wrote for Spex magazine back in the day.

Burat is a German photographer and co-founder of the cult German music magazine Spex. From 1980-early 1990s he documented the music scene on and backstage including artists from both Germany and abroad. His work is considered relevant for social and music history, pop theory and art history.

A select group of Burat’s black and white photos from the entire decade of the 1980s where shown in the background. One even spotted Australian rock artist Nick Cave.

“I was studying photography and photo engineering,” said Burat about how he chose his profession. “I had a lot of conflict with my father. So, I thought this was what I could do [as a form of rebellion.]”

Talking about developing his own art, he said, “I was never conscious of developing a style, I was just doing it to survive.”

He spoke about how back in the 1980s, there was freer access between the performers and the audience. In photos, they can often be seen mingling together whilst the performance is taking place. Punk rockers in the 1980s were rebels of their time, going against what they perceived as societal norms or structure, and wanted to express what it meant to be ‘free.’ They were certainly not a part of the mainstream music scene.

According to Burat, photographing that with a film or analog camera was tricky. “I wanted to take photographs under a special circumstance or energy. You can’t be sure what will be the result of your work. Every photograph that exists doesn’t exist as one photograph of a set, it’s unique. I was looking for the expression itself. I become the expression more or less.”

Light is one of the most important factors in photography and Burat’s photographs show a liberal use of the flashlight.

Speaking about the attitude of the artists involved in the Punk scene in the 1980s, Burat laughed that “It was never important to get famous.

It was important to do something interesting.”

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2018