So mystic and soulful

Photographer and artist Kevin Geronimo Brandtner is a collector of all things beautiful and curious, from Vienna, Austria. On one of his discovery expeditions, end of June 2023, he entered a second-hand shop and… Well, why don’t we let him tell about it?

I happened to be in a second-hand shop today. As I work in the darkroom myself, this contact print was interesting. When I got home I realised it was Iggy Rose (Iggy the Eskimo/Inuit) the muse of former Pink Floyd guitarist Syd Barrett. The pictures seem to be unknown because I can't find them anywhere. (.../...)
So many questions. The photographer seems to have been Lukas Feri. Little is known about him either. The print is original from the 70s with markings.

A man in the dark in a picture frame

In the right side corner, Feri’s name can be seen with the year 1974. This messes up Iggy’s timeline as far as we know it. We always thought that her pictures, taken by Lukas, dated from the end of the sixties.

Of course, there is a chance that Lukas developed the negatives years later, but perhaps it is safer to conclude that Iggy frequented the photographer for several years.

Alone in the night as the daylight brings

The contact sheet has 32 pictures in total, numbered from 1 to 35. (Two pictures are black, and one – number 11 – has been cut out.) And while some pictures can make you doubt, others have the typical Iggy characteristics we all like: her eternal cigarette, a glass of wine and obviously that mischievous smile. None of these pictures have been seen before.

We are not going to repeat the Feri Lukas story here, we have done that already in two Sherlock-Holmes-like features: Amateur Photographer: New Iggy Picture Found! And Feri Lukas, photographer, co-written by one of Lukas’ nephews. It appears that Lukas’ photo archive was sold on a Hungarian flea market after he died, and this contact print travelled in mysterious ways from Budapest to Vienna.

Enough blah-blah-blah, you are all here to watch the pictures, aren’t you? They will also be posted on Tumblr in a slightly bigger format, with the tags Iggy the Eskimo, Feri Lukas and KGB (from Kevin Geronimo Brandtner).

The warmth of your hand

Nice to see you are still reading this. When it was confirmed that the pictures were indeed of Iggy, Kevin returned to the same shop a few days later.

He searched through the same carton box and found some of Feri’s city shots, fashion and nude photographs, including two Iggy large-format darkroom prints that he had missed before. Here they are.

Haunting notes, pizzicato strings

A great, great thank you to Kevin Geronimo Brandtner. He adds a new country to our growing list of Iggy contributors. We have had valuable discoveries from Australia, England, France, Hong Kong, Russia, the USA, and now from Austria.

While some people think I’m undoubtedly mad I am not the guy to fall for a simple superstition. But isn’t it weird that whenever I think that my Iggy adventures are over there is a new discovery falling from the skies?

It is as if Iggy wants to say to all of us: ‘Don’t forget me’. Be sure, Iggy, we won’t.

Many thanks to: Kevin Geronimo Brandtner.
♥ Iggy ♥ Libby ♥

Kevin Geronimo Brandtner has several Facebookpages, including:
Mail art archive Vienna - MAAV
Papiergedanken - Collage Art

Feri Lukas @ The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit:
Iggy - a new look in festivals 
Iggy - another festival, another look 
Amateur Photographer: New Iggy Picture Found! 
Feri Lukas, photographer 
Viennese Iggy Treasure Found!