NEW YORK, NY.- Between 1990 and 1992, photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia made multiple trips to Los Angeles to scout locations, invent scenarios, and ultimately recruit male prostitutes to pose for his camera. Funded by a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, the last task proved the most contentious – diCorcia used his grant money to pay the hustlers whatever price they charged for a typical service. The resulting images stand as a protest against censorship in the arts, while capturing the realities of transient life in the vicinity of Santa Monica Boulevard.

In 1993, twenty-one of the photographs were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, marking diCorcia’s first solo exhibition at a major museum. Twenty years later, steidldangin publishes the series in its entirety. Hustlers is an empathetic yet melancholic poem of the Hollywood dream gone wrong. The images are both narrative and documentary – while each composition is deliberate, the hustlers themselves have a candid, natural presence. Captured in a wide range of settings, from motel rooms and fast-food restaurants to vacant lots and street corners, the spontaneity of diCorcia’s street casting perfectly balances the heavily staged scenes. The resulting photographs have a striking cinematic quality, but a troubling reality lurks beneath the surface. Appearing alongside the images, the title of each encounter amplifies the facts: Ralph Smith; 21 years old; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; $25.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia is a New York based photographer who began taking pictures in the 1970s. He attended university at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and later earned a Masters of Fine Arts in photography from Yale University, New Haven. His work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions and has become part of the collections of major institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Tate Gallery, London and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

•Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Hustlers
•First Edition 2013
•Creative Director, Pascal Dangin
•KiDS Creative
•Book Design, Stephen Smith
•Clothbound hardcover with clear acetate dust jacket
•168 pages (8 page signature) 13 x 17.3 in / 33 x 44 cm
•66 Plates
•Four-color process
•US $128 / €98 / £78
•ISBN 978-3-86930-617-9
•Publication Date: October 2013