Les Absents by Maxime Ballesteros / Available at www.draw-down.com / French photographer Maxime Ballesteros captures candid moments in a world where sexual freedom and bodily exploration is celebrated and commonplace. Many of his analog images provide glimpses of only a fraction of a scene—a pair of legs in suspenders, or the intimate proximity of bodies in a bath—nonchalantly shot from the hip, as he follows his protagonists to wild parties, into private apartments, to the early morning beach. This debut book from Ballesteros gives readers a unique view of the gritty, flawed, raw, climatic, and sexualised world that exists around us. A world that we are perhaps terrified to live in, but equally terrified to leave. With contributions by Caroline Gaimari (Purple) and photographer John Isaac. Art direction by #B.A.M. Published by #HatjeCantz and #SangBleuLondon #LesAbsents #MaximeBallesteros