THE BALLAD OF SEXUAL DEPENDENCY

(New York): (Aperture Foundation), 1986. First edition. Near fine in very good jacket.. First edition — association copy — of this classic photobook, inscribed to fellow photographer Sophie Rivera. Goldin's first book and the work for which she is still best known. The photos were first publicly displayed as a slideshow at the 1985 Whitney Biennial; titled after a song from the Brecht/Weill Threepenny Opera, the show was set to the music of the Velvet Underground, Nina Simone, and others, reflected in the book's section titles (All Tomorrow's Parties, Femme Fatale...) From Goldin's introduction: "I sometimes don't know how I feel about someone until (truncated) I take his or her picture... I want the people in my pictures to stare back. I want to show exactly what my world looks like, without glamorization, without glorification."

The same could have been written about Rivera. Though Goldin was a generation younger than her colleague, both came of age in the late 1970s/early 1980s NYC, and each carefully documented their immediate communities: Rivera her Puerto Rican neighbors (collected in her 1978 photography series Nuyorican Portraits) and Goldin her intimate circle of friends and lovers in New York's Lower East Side. Scarce signed, especially with a contemporary inscription. A rare association from one pioneering photographer to another of this classic photobook. 9'' x 10''. Original blue cloth with gilt-lettered spine. In original unclipped ($39.95) dust jacket, designed by Keith Davis. Blue endpapers. Edited with Marvin Heiferman, Mark Holborn and Suzanne Fletcher. 144 pages. Inscribed by Goldin to photographer Sophie Rivera on verso of title: "For Sophie / much luck w. your work / all the success in 87 and onward / Best to you, Nan Goldin." Some sunning to spine, closed tear to lower edge rear flap. Mild wear to extremities. Overall, clean and sound. (Inventory #: 53682)