#22 CAMERA Book Review: Ken Pate - Roquette Rockers

A look at a very intriguing book by Ken Pate entitled Roquette Rockers of the rockers who used to gather on the rue de la Roquette, Paris in the seventies. An insight into a subculture that never died, but had become more marginalized since its heyday in the 50s.

Ken Pate's Roquette Rockers was published by Contrejour in Paris in 1975 and was the first photobook issued by Claude Nori's newly established publishing house. The project documents a group of young rockers who gathered around the Rue de la Roquette and the Place de la Bastille in eastern Paris during the early 1970s. An American photographer living in Paris at the time, Pate spent several weeks photographing the group after gaining their trust, producing an intimate record of a youth subculture that had developed its own identity through music, motorcycles, leather clothing and friendship. The book includes an introductory text by photography historian Carole Naggar and remains Pate's only published photobook.

Rather than portraying the group through sensationalism or social commentary, Pate photographed the rockers from within their everyday environment, recording conversations, gatherings and informal portraits that reveal both confidence and vulnerability. His photographs document a generation influenced by American rock and roll and British Teddy Boy style while rooted firmly in the streets of Paris. Produced at a time when documentary photography in France was gaining renewed attention, Roquette Rockers has become recognised as an important record of Parisian youth culture during the 1970s and a significant early publication in the history of Contrejour's influential photography list.

Kent Pate:

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