This volume published by Hunters Point Press is the debut book of photographs by the late photographer and collector Michel Hurst (1948–2023). Made in and around his adopted home of Mexico City over a period of roughly six years, the photographs in Órale pulse with the lifeblood of a country marred by suffering but consistently renewed by the promise of redemption. Through Hurst’s lens, the reader absorbs ancient rituals and new cults, beauty and degradation, danger and tenderness, lust and longing. With the flinty eye of a hard-bitten street photographer and the soft touch of an aesthete, Hurst shows us not just Mexico but the human condition itself. This monograph includes an introduction by acclaimed photographer and activist Nan Goldin, an essay by New Yorker photography critic Chris Wiley and an afterword by Hurst’s husband of 40 years, Robert Swope.
About Robert Swope
Robert Swope was born in Nashville, Tennessee and graduated from Eckerd College in 1976. He was the singer and lyricist of the legendary NYC No Wave band BEIRUT SLUMP beginning in 1979. In 1985, he co-founded, with Michel Hurst, the New York City 20th-century design gallery FULL HOUSE, which operated through 2014. Along with Michel Hurst, he co-edited the photography book CASA SUSANNA, an archive of found photographs of mid-century cross-dressers, published in 2005. He currently lives in Mexico City.
About Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin is an American photographer and artist. Since the 1970s her work has explored notions of gender and definitions of normality. By documenting her life and the lives of the friends who surround her, Goldin gives a voice and visibility to her communities especially the bohemian LGBT communities which were deeply impacted by the devastating HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s. These images of her ‘extended family’ became the subject of her seminal slide show and first book The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. Her retrospective This Will Not End Well, the first exhibition dedicated to her work as a filmmaker, is currently traveling through Europe (Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan; and Grand Palais Rmn, Paris). She is the founding member of the advocacy group P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) which targeted the pharmaceutical companies responsible for the overdose epidemic. She has been an outspoken advocate for Palestine since the 1970s. She lives and works in New York City and Paris.
About Chris Wiley
Chris Wiley is a writer and artist based in Woodstock, NY. He contributes regularly to the New Yorker and has written for numerous catalogs and publications including Aperture, Elle, Frieze, Kaleidoscope, ArtForum and FOAM. His photographic work has been included in exhibitions at MoMA PS1, Atlanta Contemporary, Marian Goodman, Hauser and Wirth and Marianne Boesky, among others. He is represented by Nicelle Beauchene Gallery in New York.
Zach Ritter
ORALE LOVE DEATH CDMX
Photographs by Michel Hurst
Introduction by Nan Goldin
Essay by Chris Wiley
Afterword by Robert Swope
Edited by Nan Goldin & Barney Kulok
$50.00
https://www.hunterspointpress.com/product/%C3%B3rale-love-and-death-in-mexico-city
