The Frightening Beauty of Florian Hetz (Photos)

Florian Hetz’s close-ups suggest a tiny piece of a much bigger story you may not want to know. Blood, spit, scars, and God knows what else lure us in, and we end up writing our own surrounding story and are we forced to become participants. 

The venerable publishing house Bruno Gmünder has stepped up its game in the last year sort so. No longer satisfied with the respectable Spartacus Guides and naughty boy books as its only stock-in-trade, it has launched the Portfolio1000 series that stakes an art-driven claim in the world of high-end photo books. The books in this new collection range from deliriously sensuous to shocking and challenging. 

About the artist: Florian Hetz was born to a Bohemian-Norwegian-Prussian family. He stole his first Mapplethorpe book when he was 14. The artist’s body of work covers performance, illustration, photography, and painting. In addition to his artistic career, he manages the bar at Berghain/Panoramabar in Berlin.

If you just happen to be in Berlin there’s this: 
Release party at Berghain, October 8, 8–11 p.m. RSVP at ronny.matthes@brunogmuender.com

Read more and order this book here.