Visual art
Jimmy DeSana
1949–1990 · photographer
Detroit-born photographer who became a key figure of New York's East Village punk and No Wave art scene of the late 1970s and 1980s.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
New York City, New York
aged 40- Birth name
- James Arthur DeSana
- Also known as
- Jimmy De Sana
- Field
- Visual art
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
DeSana was born in Detroit in 1949 and later moved to New York, where he became one of the defining photographers of the downtown punk and No Wave scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. His staged color photographs of bodies, often contorted, bound or placed among everyday objects under saturated colored light, ranged from explicit to purely symbolic and have been described as anti-art. He self-published the photobook Submission, with an introduction by William S. Burroughs, and collaborated closely with the photographer Laurie Simmons. His images also reached a wide audience through album covers, most famously the cover of Talking Heads' More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978), and John Giorno's LP You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With. He died of AIDS-related illness in 1990, aged 40, and his work has since been rediscovered in museum retrospectives. His Detroit tie is his birth.
Highlights
- Key photographer of the East Village punk and No Wave scene
- Photobook Submission, introduced by William S. Burroughs
- Cover of Talking Heads' More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978)
- Close collaborator of Laurie Simmons