ONE LAST GOODBYE - JEHSONG BAAK

ONE LAST GOODBYE
New York 1987 – 2013

Jehsong Baak, Gerhard, New York 1987, One Last Goodbye — Gerhard, New York 1987

Jehsong Baak, Elisabeth Street, New York 1988, One Last Goodbye — Elisabeth Street, New York 1988

Jehsong Baak, 86th and Broadway, New York 1987, One Last Goodbye — 86th and Broadway, New York 1987

Jehsong Baak, Cynthia and Zachary, Provincetown 1989, One Last Goodbye — Cynthia and Zachary, Provincetown 1989

Jehsong Baak, Gora Lahiri, New York 1987, One Last Goodbye — Gora Lahiri, New York 1987

Jehsong Baak, Armon Lee, New York 1987, One Last Goodbye — Armon Lee, New York 1987

Jehsong Baak, German girl, New York 1987, One Last Goodbye — German girl, New York 1987

Jehsong Baak, L'Eternel est Grand, New York 1987, One Last Goodbye — L'Eternel est Grand, New York 1987

Jehsong Baak, Deane, New York 1990, One Last Goodbye — Deane, New York 1990

Jehsong Baak, Liv, New York 1989, One Last Goodbye — Liv, New York 1989

Jehsong Baak, Mask, New York 1990, One Last Goodbye — Mask, New York 1990

Jehsong Baak, Mitchell, New York 1990, One Last Goodbye — Mitchell, New York 1990

Jehsong Baak, Bleecker Street subway, New York 2002, One Last Goodbye — Bleecker Street subway, New York 2002

Jehsong Baak, My father at 26 and 60, New York 1990, One Last Goodbye — My father at 26 and 60, New York 1990

Jehsong Baak, John Gregory, Provincetown 1989, One Last Goodbye — John Gregory, Provincetown 1989

Jehsong Baak, Girl and helicopter, St. Croix 1990, One Last Goodbye — Girl and helicopter, St. Croix 1990

Jehsong Baak, Self-portrait Polaroids, New York 1990, One Last Goodbye — Self-portrait Polaroids, New York 1990

This is a book I started working on in 2014. I had thought for a long time about doing something with my earliest pictures, taken in New York from 1987 to 1990 before getting burned out and stopping photography altogether for seven years. Most of the negatives from this period were thrown into the trash bin in a moment of immature stupidity and sheer folly in 1990, but I did at least have a tiny bit of sense to save a couple hundred frames.

The first maquettes were made with Robert Delpire, but his health started to deteriorate, leading to his retirement and his office at rue de l’Abbaye in St. Germain getting taken over by another publisher.

An excerpt from my text in the book.

“Gerhard is there, too, and he’s calling me a cowboy once more for old time’s sake. And Jennifer, beautiful as an angel, gazing out at me lovingly and tenderly. There are many others in the gathering – my neighbors at the SRO hotel, girlfriends and sworn enemies and one-time friends whom I haven’t seen in ages. They are getting smaller and smaller in the rear-view mirror until they all become dots almost like grains in an enlarged photograph. The shrinking dots are blending together and forming what looks like an image. I can’t quite make it out but I have a pretty good idea what it is. I won’t know for sure until I get a little further along the road that I am now on.”

ONE LAST GOODBYENew York 1987 – 2013

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ONE LAST GOODBYE
New York 1987 – 2013