These Pictures Could Only Have Been Taken at the Darkest Time of Night

In his first book, the Berlin-based French photographer Maxime Ballesteros offers a raw, voyeuristic view of his late-night adventures. “We don’t do books about fear,” said Ballesteros of his unfiltered and slightly unhinged photographs that explore sex, transgression, and other unspoken desires that are collected in Les Absents (Hatje Cantz). Shot over the course of a decade in Berlin, France, Japan, Miami, New York, and other places around the world populated by anarchic characters and Ballesteros’ friends like Lily McMenamy and Waris Ahluwalia, the pictures come from the desperate hours when night becomes day, and self-honesty surfaces. “The photographs are ultimately about loneliness,” Ballesteros explained. “Whether it’s sex, material items, or other constructions, it’s about how we use things that make us forget time—not in a dark way, but a playful one.”