Matt LAMBERT - KEIM - 2015-2015

First edition, white. The second is black. This book is new, still in its original blister. No defects!
I don’t know the language; the publisher being German, I suppose it’s German.

Keim by Matt Lambert is a very particular secret. It’s a book wrapped in whispers, gossip, insinuations, rumors, myths, mystique, and mystery. Its flagship title, “Lovers, Friends, Muses, a Husband,” illustrates the duplicity inherent in the aim of this young, talented photographer. The choice of a cover depicting an anonymous penis is revealing. He is in full ejaculation. A double exposure shows his trajectory, and a small spray of semen slides down the right edge of the page. This cam boy vision is analogous to the way Lambert approaches, with a generational perspective, the documentation of adolescent sexuality. The photographic diary as a rite of passage for the artist and his subject is a well-trodden path. Larry Clark’s autobiography, *Tulsa* (1971), shocked by revealing the muscular torsos of his teenage friends – penises, needles, and rifle cannons piercing the sexualized silhouette. It wasn’t what society wanted to see, but it’s denial.
If Lambert has a photographic lineage, it is likely that of Nan Goldin and her foundational work, *The Ballad of Sexual Dependency* (1985). The rich reds and browns of Kodachrome, the spontaneous framing, and the incredible intimacy of *Roommates in Bed* (1981) or *Skinhead Having Sex in London* (1978) are largely found in Lambert’s work. Yet the influence ends there: Lambert’s worldview is neither a ballad nor a story of dependency. While Goldin’s exploration of family and relationships examines the politics of sexual intimacy, Lambert is apolitical: his work begins and ends with sex. He is therefore independent of relationships. He does not seek to reveal the identities of the characters. Unlike the figures in Goldin’s book, no one in *Keim* has a name, status, or aim other than sexual within the action. All are anonymous. Most are aroused.