LOVE SONGS – PHOTOGRAPHIES DE L’INTIME

This collective work, which accompanies the exhibition presented at the MEP, interrogates the role of photography in the comprehension and representation of love, physical proximity, sexuality and thus of intimacy.

The book offers a new look at the history of photography through the prism of love relationships. Built like the two sides of a record, Love Songs – Photographies de l’intime (Photography and intimacy) brings together the work of 16 artists who have placed their own intimacy at the center of their photographic creation.

Among the major photographic series are Nobuyoshi Araki’s Sentimental Journey (1969) and Winter Journey (1989-1990), which present the beginning and end of the relationship with his wife Yoko, from their honeymoon to her death; and Nan Goldin’s masterpiece The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (since 1983), an intimate exploratory stroll through the New York underground of the times. Covering a period from 1950 to 2021, the book presents a combination iconic series and images never before shown in France.

Love Songs reveals the special relationship that photography has with reality and this indescribable thing called love. The director of the MEP, Simon Baker, signs the preface.