Description
Zurich: Scalo, 1995. Tall quarto hardcover with dustjacket. Around 120 pages, illustrated throughout with short text at end. Fine clean, well preserved attractive copy
First edition, German version published simultanously. Photographs of unsuspecting urinators, drug takers, and used-condom removers, shot at night into the faint outline of an open window at a brothel. Designed by Hans Werner Holzwarth. Excellent printing (Parr / Badger, v3, 92)
“While staying at a friend’s loft in the Wall Street district in 1993, Merry Alpern realized that a window in the back room provided a view of a tiny bathroom window of an illegal lap-dance club frequently visited by stock-brokers and other businessmen. Captivated by the spectacle, Alpern spent an entire winter spying with her camera. The photographer not only captured paid sexual favors, drugs and money changing hands, but also the fragility of the women spending a few seconds in front of the mirror. In 1995, when she was about to receive a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant, her nomination was suddenly rejected and vilified by more conservative members of the council who were outraged by the images. This caused quite a controversy, at the same time sparking a great interest in the work. As a result, museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and San Francisco rushed to exhibit the subsequently acclaimed series.”
