For twenty years after the attack on the World Trade Center, Donna Ferrato has photographed the healing and the rebirth of Tribeca, New York City’s most historic neighborhood.
“Donna Ferrato miraculously manages to capture TriBeCa from two completely distinct points of view at the same time: She can stand at a distance with the objective eye of a compassionate, awestruck outsider as well as take us inside the heart of our big city hamlet with the love and care that only a native could possibly possess. She has the ability to artfully merge these seemingly opposing vantage points into one singular, truthful, and gracefully beautiful vision.”
— Michael Imperioli
Also available in a limited edition of 50. Signed by Donna Ferrato and complete with a slipcover and 11×14 archival silver-gelatin print of “Ladder House 8.”
Please email if you would like to order the limited edition copy with print or if you would like to have it shipped internationally.
“Donna Ferrato’s powerful documentary photographs have taken us into worlds we could never imagine witnessing. Her book, Living with the Enemy, is the quintessential document about the devastating lives of battered women. In her latest work, “TriBeCa” we see a different side to Donna. This personal interpretation of the NYC neighborhood, TriBeCa, spans over twelve years. The photographs are full of life, humor, beauty and atmosphere. It’s an ever changing walk through her eyes; believe me, Donna’s eye is most unique.
Donna has the shaman’s ability to transform a one-sided reality into her own special point of view. She also has a wonderful ability to frame her images with an uncanny immediacy. You almost feel that she knows when a picture is going to happen before it happens — and then she snatches it, like a spider in waiting. This collection of images seem to come from the dreams in a diary. A poetic tribute to Donna’s home, TriBeCa.”
— Mary Ellen Mark
From the award-winning photographer of Aperture’s seminal Living with the Enemy, now in its fourth printing, comes Love & Lust, a provocative look at human intimacy. In this work, Donna 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. 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.
Inside her tender and violent language there is the desire for the recreation of souls and an invitation to free sexuality in order to enjoy sentimental erotic fulfillment. While the photos draw us to a liberal sexuality, they also transmit a message to the heart of the problem: sexuality is our life’s motor and has thousands of expressions. However, in order to be totally gratifying, it must be accompanied by tenderness and affection. Donna registers these emotions and reflections in different situations: family life, casual meetings, sexual relationships, private clubs, along the streets of the world, meetings with children and adults, and scenes from everyday life.
Ferrato rode over 6,000 hours with police around the country to get some of the photographs in Living With the Enemy. In the introduction to Living With the Enemy, Ferrato writes, “Much of the book was born out of frustration – first, because I felt powerless in the face of the violence I had seen, and, second, because for a long time no magazine would publish the pictures. It was only when I received the W. Eugene Smith Award in 1986 that magazine editors began to take the project seriously.” Ferrato felt the problem had been concealed from public view for too long and it was important to show as many aspects of the problem as she could. Some of the names in the book were changed, but all of the photographs and stories are real.
Photographs by Donna Ferrato. Designed by Aurora Di Girolamo. Introduction by Fred Ritchin. Printed in Sicily by Litizia Battaglia. FOTOGRAFIA. Edizioni Il Laboratorio D’IF. © 1986