German photographer Jörg Brüggemann spent three years traveling the world to photograph metalheads in their natural environments—at home, on the streets, at shows, in tents. Now he’s got a book of it all, calledMetalheads, which comes out Friday in tandem with a gallery exhibition in Berlin. We talked to him about that, Death Vomit, Indonesian textile workers, globalism, Muslim teens, and whether or not metal is a safe place for everyone.
VICE: Do you identify as a metalhead? Is that how this book came about?
Jörg Brüggemann: Not exactly, but I remember first seeing the video for Guns N’ Roses’ “You Could be Mine” and remember the raw power—back then when I was 12 it felt like raw power, Guns and Roses. I got on it. I started to listen to Sepultura when I was 13, then Pantera. I got more into hardcore as a teenager through friends.I came up with the idea of doing the project after I saw the documentary Global Metal by Sam Dunn. I was interested in globalization of youth culture. I’m a typical kid of the MTV generation from Germany, that was the first step of the globalization of youth culture, but through the internet the whole thing has sped up a lot. A friend of mine is the manager of a German metalcore band and I asked them if they could take me on tour. With them I went to festivals in Austria and Switzerland and Germany. From then on, every half a year when I had the money I took a trip to some of these countries.
