Skins
Evelyn Kutschera has the ability to capture the aesthetics and spirit of the skinhead culture from a unique insider perspective. Given the protective and often private nature of skinheads, her first hand involvement in the anti-racist skinhead movement allows her an ability to create candid portraits that would be unobtainable by an outsider to this widely misunderstood subculture.
Modern international skinhead culture has been largely overlooked in favour of historical accounts or sensationalist depictions of the adulterated far-right distortion of the skinhead name.
Ms. Kutschera is filling an essential role in documenting the diverse and vibrant tapestry of traditional skinhead and anti-racist skinhead movements in the present tense. Her vision to address the culture's modern-day evolution promises to provide a primary source that otherwise could not exist.
Although skinheads were initially born from the intersection of young working-class white mods and black jamaican immigrants in the urban corners of the uk from 1967 to 1970, the culture has since spread to nearly every continent. The communal identity of the skinhead movement is distinct in each city where young people have adopted it and virtually every corner of the earth where disenchanted young people have access to doc martens boots, hair clippers, and vinyl records has hosted its own iteration of skinheads.
Ms. Kutschera successfully showcases both the differences in regional adaptations and the common denominators that bind skinheads all over the world: Minimalist style and a love for reggae, ska, street rock, and hardcore punk rock.
