NEW YORK GIRLS 20TH ANNIV HC

New York Girls, first released in 1995, and published by TASCHEN Books in 1996, defined a time, a place, and the raw esthetic of the artist Richard Kern. After kicking his heroin habit, Kern turned to still photography, shooting girls in his downtown, punk-inflected New York social circle. They were naked, bold, tattooed, pierced, and casually posed in minimal sets, mostly just Richard's ratty slum apartment. They were young, but not innocent, fully complicit in the bondage, gunplay, and infamous candle insertions. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Kern's best-known work, TASCHEN is releasing an updated edition with never-published outtakes from the original photo sets, as well as photos rejected as too explicit for the first book and stills from his 25 films.