Charles Bukowski Photography

Most photographers who shot Bukowski got one session. Michael Montfort got seventeen years.

The German photojournalist met Bukowski in 1977 for a magazine cover shoot, brought a bottle of wine to win him over, and they became close friends and collaborators until Bukowski's death in 1994. Montfort is represented here more fully than anywhere else — his books, individual prints signed and stamped, and rare limited editions including The Iris Prints, Horsemeat, The Wedding, and That's It — A Final Visit with Charles Bukowski.

Beyond Montfort the collection includes original wedding photographs by Abe Frajndlich — one featuring Bukowski and Red Stoldosky, another with Stoldosky, Bukowski, and poet Steve Richmond — a signed Carlos Freire photograph of Bukowski and Linda Lee in Paris, likely taken during Bukowski's famous 1978 appearance on the French literary television show Apostrophes — a signed Richard Robinson portrait, and three photographs taken by Linda Lee Bukowski herself, two inscribed by Bukowski to Stoldosky and one signed.

Also here is POOP — the X-Ray Press collaboration between Montfort and Johnny Brewton combining a long broadside with 13 color photographs in a decorative box.

Browse everything below — and read the descriptions. Each one has a story.