As a teen in suburban Atlanta, Jimmy DeSana, born in 1949, was already a controversial photographer, a kid who got his high school friends to pose naked for him. When he moved to New York City in 1973, after studying at the University of Georgia, he realized his edgy style was in line with the times. DeSana hung out with Patti Astor, Laurie Anderson, and David Byrne, and never stopped taking his neo-surreal staged photographs, which combined nude bodies with mundane objects. Just as his career was taking off, DeSana died at 40 from an AIDS-related illness. This exhibition celebrates DeSana, who was emblematic of New York City culture as well as the LGBTQ community. —Elena Clavarino