A 19th-century queer journal hits shelves again as Rimowa taps Collier Schorr to frame New York’s LGBTQIA+ vanguard in a 300-copy release.
It began in Berlin in 1896 when activist Adolf Brand printed the first issue of Der Eigene, a publication devoted to gay art, politics, and self-expression. More than a century later the magazine remains a touchstone; its latest chapter opens this Pride Month as Rimowa, better known for ribbed aluminum carry-ons, commissions a fourth edition that bridges legacy and now.
Rimowa first reopened Der Eigene in 2022 with editor Luis Venegas; for 2025 the luggage house hands the reins to Collier Schorr, whose black-and-white portraiture interrogates identity and performance. Schorr invited casting director Nicola Kast to help select 15 New Yorkers who animate today’s queer culture. The lineup spans a student she met at the gym, the boxer who runs that gym, and artists who orbit her lens, proof that community often forms one introduction at a time.
Schorr’s sitters stand unguarded under studio lights. Each image appears beside a quick-fire Q&A, turning the magazine into an album of personal manifestos. The project dovetails with the photographer’s ongoing AutoBody Book series, which likens customized vintage cars to the inventive ways queer people shape gender and presentation. “It is a creative act to show oneself,” she says, and the pages read like a manifesto on self-making.
Only 300 complimentary copies exist. Beginning June 26 2025, readers can pick up Der Eigene at Bookmarc in New York, Andreas Murkudis in Berlin, Yvon Lambert in Paris, and Climax Books in London, then decide how quickly history can move when carried in a suitcase.
