Nina Berman: An Autobiography of Miss Wish | LENSCRATCH

Every once in awhile, a book lands on my desk unexpectedly, so I approach it with no preconceived notions. When I opened Nina Berman’s An Autobiography of Miss Wish, published by Kehrer, it was like a burst of energy, a fireball of amazing story telling, page after page that drew me in. And the deeper I went, the more my heart ached. This is a 26-year long collaborative project validating and marking the life of someone as evidence for an existence that dealt with the land mines and difficulties of homelessness, mental illness, and the ravages of drug use. Nina met Kimberly Stevens in London in 1990 while photographing young drug addicts and began a relationship that spanned decades and continents, a relationship that went beyond the normal photographer/subject relationship. The book is ultimately a collaborative project and a definitive document that proclaims, “I was here”.