Publisher's Synopsis
The Beatniks of the 1950s - Kerouac, Burroughs, Kenneth Rextroth, Lawrence Ferlinghetti - became a model for subsequent generations of "drop-outs" and "alternative" movements. One of their most eleoquent representatives was Allen Ginsberg, poet and singer, and now a professor in New York. Ginsberg was also, however, one of the millions who used a camera for purely personal pleasure, simply to capture "the spirit of the moment". He photographed the Beat Generation with a $13 Kodak, using as models his friends, at that time still unknown to the outside world.;"Reality Sandwiches" presents a selection of these snapshots, spontaneous character studies and group shots, resulting from the informal photo sessions in Ginsberg's New York apartment, from his travels in the 1960s to Europe, Africa, India, and Japan, and from the last five years, when he took to depicting the literary scene once more. Ginsberg affords an insight into his personal album which, even after the unexpected literary sucess of those depicted, has remained private until recently.;The photographs, accompanied by Ginsberg's handwritten captions throughout, give a unique insight into the genial, carefree lifestyle of the Beatniks and document that intellectual masculine friendship which is celebrated in the writing of this period. The book forms a documentary of a group of writers with close personal and artistic ties - an historical archive of the Beat Generation.
