"'Love is not for sissies,' Reynaldo Rivera warns me. 'Oh my god, love has almost killed me more than once but I would do it again. That's the tragedy of it all.' The Mexican-born photographer is talking to me over Zoom from his home in Los Angeles. He tilts his camera so I can admire the cat which has just jumped all too briefly onto his lap."
"His latest photo book, Propiedad Privada, published by Semiotext(e), is all about that hound from hell - love. Encompasing pictures from the 1980s to the present day, it brings together what he calls his 'blue' works - the most candid and erotic images from his archive, many of which were never intended for public consumption: nude self portraits (with and without lovers), friends undressing, couples embracing, the prone figures of naked sleepers, shower scenes, close-ups of penetration."
"'Most of that stuff was really meant for me,' he says. 'That's the reason the title of the book is Private Property. It's also the title of a song by Lucha Reyes, one of my favourite singers ... 'Que no se atreva nadie a mirarte con ansias, p orque mi pobre alma s e retuerce de celos' ('Let no one dare to look at you with desire, because my poor soul twists with jealousy' ).'"
Propiedad Privada assembles candid, erotic 'blue' photographs spanning the 1980s to the present, including nude self-portraits, friends undressing, couples embracing, naked sleepers, shower scenes, and close-ups of penetration. Many images were never intended for public viewing and originate in a private archive. Accompanying texts by Constance Debré, Chris Kraus, Brontez Purnell, Colm Tóibín and others frame the images as reflections on desire and new love. A Mexican-born photographer links melodramatic Hispanic torch-singer traditions and jealous longing to a photographic practice that seeks to keep people tangible.
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