Six years for 160 stores, 5 continents for 33 cities, the German photographer Bernd Jonkmanns travel the world shooting the best record shops, in search of the small detail which says length on those record companies, about their singularities. From Paris to Oslo, from Brighton to Rio, from Sydney to San Francisco, his book is a unique testimony on this culture, for a long time underground, from now a bit more mainstream…
You travelled the world for your book ‘Record Stores’! When did you start this project and how long have you been working on it?
I started the project in 2009 in Hamburg when I thought there will be not so many record stores left in a few years. There was at this time and there still is big dying of record stores. I continued to work on this idea till 2015 and finished taking pictures at the last city in Brussels.
What about the choice of the cities you visit?
The most of the cities I took in the last 6 years I had photo assignments in these cities and then I always spent 3-4 days extra to photograph the stores, the owners and the atmosphere. I decided to travel to London, Paris, Stockholm, Glasgow, Reykjavik, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and many other cities because I thought it could be interesting to find record stores and photograph ten there
What was the most impressive record store ? and why ?
The most impressive recordstore was in Brighton called “The Record Album”. George Cinn, born 1930 is the owner and he opened up the store in 1962. He is specialized in Soundtrack albums. It is so amazing that he only sells soundtracks and that he is so long in the business.
Do you find, after all, some common points of all those stores ?
The common point is that all stores are individual and very personal. Each store presents the owner and the people who come and buy there.
The book just arrives for 2015 christmas and it seems to be the perfect gift for all record diggers. Did you think about timing when you work on publishing the book?
No, I never thought about this. The main work after I took all the pictures was to find a publisher. I had to finance the all project on my own. The crowdfunding campaign was very successful but it was only one third of the printing costs.
Did you plan already a second volume with more exotic destination (Africa, Thailand, Colombia…)?
No, I don’t think so, because the project is finished for me and the effort to produce a book like this is very high.
Was the ‘vinyl revival’ be already big when you decided to start this project?
t was not big at all when I started it the project in 2009. My idea was to preserve the culture of record stores with my pictures because I thought there won’t be any stores left in a few years. So it is very surprisingly and positive that there is a revival of record stores and record collectors.
The interest in vinyl digging and record collecting seems bigger than ever. NYC photographer Eilon Paz and his successfull ‘Dust & Grooves’ book about record diggers, now yours about record stores, do you think there’s gonna be more in the near future?
I don’t know. But what I really like and what is interesting that a lot of young people now buying vinyl records now. The shops are more crowded than years ago. And people like to explore the shops and their special character.
Do you collect records yourself? And do you have a speciality ? Did you find some own holy grails during your magical mystery tour?
Yes, I collect myself. I bought many Bossa Nova records that is my passion. In most of the stores which I photographed I bought one or more vinyl LP’s. In Japan there were so many great records so that I had to buy a big suitcase to bring all the records back to Germany.
