Love and Lust

From the award-winning photographer of Aperture’s seminal Living with the Enemy, now in its fourth printing, comes Donna Ferrato’s second book, Love and Lust, a provocative look at human intimacy. Ferrato’s first book tackled the brutal subject of battered women, making an important issue public. Now, Ferrato turns her eye on the theme of love in its many facets, from the emotional bond of a boy and his dog, to full-blooded orgies and other lusty behavior.

The constant question regarding Ferrato’s work is, “How does she get these astonishing pictures?” Readers will wonder the same as they page through these bold, sometimes shockingly intimate photographs. This is anything but asentimental journey. Non-judgmental, wide-eyed, and embracing myriad expressions of human emotion, Ferrato moves with assurance from puppy love to orgasm, from a peck on the cheek between friends to sexual role-playing to S&M. In these photographs, representing nearly thirty years of her work, Ferrato is never heavy-handed or sensational. Rather, there is always the sense that she is winking at the viewer, encouraging a relaxed acceptance of all the positive expressions of human feeling, be they childlike or fabulously steamy.