David Wojnarowicz

One of David Wojnarowicz's few incursions into photography is a testimony of urban, social and political change in New York in the late 1970s In 1978 and 1979, David Wojnarowicz took a series of photographs of a man wearing a paper mask bearing the visage of Arthur Rimbaud, the French poet equally known for his fervid verse and dramatic life. Rimbaud was the instantiation, and perhaps the inventor, of the idea of the young gay hustler of genius. Presenting a selection of photographs by Wojnarowicz, this amply illustrated volume features an introductory essay by Antonio Sergio Bessa contextualizing the series within a foundation of other works across literature, photography and performance. Nicholas Martin explores Wojnarowicz's practice in the context of the rise of the punk movement in downtown Manhattan in the late 1970s. Craig Dworkin explores Rimbaud's years as a runaway youth in Paris during the Commune, and his acquaintances with the city's bohemia. Marguerite Van Cook contributes an essay about her experiences with the London and New York music and art scenes throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Phillip Aarons offers a personal account of his engagement as a collector of Wojnarowicz's work. The book also features an interview with photographer Allen Frame, who produced several performances of Wojnarowicz's monologues in the early 1980s in New York's Lower East Side, Berlin and Brooklyn. Painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, songwriter and activist David Wojnarowicz was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, in 1954 and died from AIDS-related illness in New York in 1992. He authored a few books, most famously Close to the Knives. Wojnarowicz attained national prominence as a writer and advocate for AIDS awareness and for his stance against censorship.