NYC photographer Laura June Kirsch has been documenting nightlife, in the form of shows, parties, and other events, for years, and she just announced her first book. Romantic Lowlife Fantasies: Emerging Adults in the Age of Hope is due out in the fall via Hat & Beard Press, and features over 100 color and black and white photographs, along with essays by comedian Darlene “Dee Nasty” Demorizi, writer Allison P Davis, LIONS SHARE podcast co-founder and Twitch music manager Allyson Toy, Brooke Burt, astrologist and wellness coach Caitlin McCarry, and Jessica Amodeo. W and Vulture society photographer Jessica Craig-Martin wrote the introduction, and Laura co-edited the book with Juxtapoz editor-in-chief Evan Pricco. Here’s more about it from the description:

Romantic Lowlife Fantasies: Emerging Adults in the Age of Hope is award-winning photographer Laura June Kirsch’s first monograph. Co-edited by Kirsch and Juxtapoz editor-in-chief Evan Pricco, the collection examines an era of hopeful hedonism for a generation that came of age between 9/11 and a recession that put the traditional American Dream just out of reach.

Kirsch has captured a unique time with these photographs and draws a connection from how her own 20s turned out (“nothing like what I was told”) to the lives of fellow millennials she met while making the book, “free spirits in cities across America, living out their adult lives in unconventional ways.”

She elaborates:

“Security was never a viable option… We graduated from high school in the shadow of 9/11 and entered the workforce in the midst of a recession. By our mid-30s, once most of us finally got a grip on our lives, a global pandemic [had struck]. Are we really the ‘entitled generation’, or do we take risks because we have nothing to lose?

The economic crash of 2008 devastated all but rent prices. This created an opportunity for young people to start businesses—open venues, bars and restaurants. Communities of fun-loving people formed in cities across America. Subsequently, the parties were non stop. These photos are a collection from that time period, documenting emerging adults living out their romantic lowlife fantasies.”

You can see some pictures from Romantic Lowlife Fantasies below.

Publisher Hat & Beard will be partnering with a US print shop run by women to press the book, and a potion of proceeds from sales will be donated to Black Lives Matter and Stop AAPI Hate. You can preorder your copy here.