Photographs and text by Marc McAndrews
Essay by Patty Kelly
Interview with Dennis Hof by Bill Higgins

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“McAndrews’s panoramas of the wide Nevada sky and sagebrush highlight the isolation of each brothel; his interiors, with the lush greens and maroons of an Edward Hopper painting, draw our attention, matter-of-factly, to the detritus of quotidian brothel life …. And the women themselves are a revelation. Their bodies have been variously augmented and marked by tattoos and stretch marks, and they look into the camera, directly at the viewer, with self-possession, humor, and irony.” ~ Publishers Weekly

“Nevada Rose: Inside the American Brothel finds photographer Marc McAndrews brilliantly capturing not only the legal working girls, but also the cooks, cleaning ladies, managers, “house moms,” and pets that surround the sex trade …. The resulting images are sultry, stirring, sad, playful pictures; they reveal that like any other job, prostitution is just another nine-to-five (or, well, midnight to noon).” ~ Interview Magazine

“The first thing that struck me about the photographs was the color, each page vivid and stark, standing on its own in gorgeous natural saturation. [Marc McAndrews] finds beauty in all places …. The portraits are captivating, the people are the soul of this book.” ~ Working Class

“Juxtaposing the exotic (sex menus and stripper poles) with the quotidien (Post-it notes, washing machines) renders McAndrews’ imagery especially compelling and creates a sense of queasy, albeit not entirely unwelcome, familiarity.” ~Sarah Fones

Scattered around the state of Nevada in little, unassuming desert towns, prostitution is thriving. Marc McAndrews’ extraordinary work, Nevada Rose, gives readers a peek into this legal, albeit secretive, world of fantasy and theater. The end result of a five-year project, the book takes us inside the thirty-three “ranches” in and around towns like Pahrump, Ely, Carson City, and Scotty’s Junction. The brothels have equally folksy names and charming sobriquets: The Black Pearl, the Stardust Ranch, Chicken Ranch, and Inez’s Dancing and Diddling, among others.

Nevada Rose includes 160 color photographs and an essay by Marc McAndrews explaining how he became involved with the project. The book also includes an introductory essay by Patty Kelly, a feminist anthropologist and the author of Lydia’s Open Door: Inside Mexico’s Most Modern Brothel; a glossary of industry terms; and an interview with Dennis Hof, the owner of The Bunny Ranch (featured on HBO’s Cathouse) and self-proclaimed “Pimpmaster of America.”

While the book includes a diverse array of images of the working girls in their working costumes, McAndrews also takes us behind the curtain of sex into a world of brothel life rarely discussed—the kitchens and the cooks, laundry rooms and lounges, timers, personal bedrooms, and pets. We meet the managers and the madams, in a fascinating insider’s view that explores the difference between the real and the perceived in American culture and mores.

Marc McAndrews grew up in Reading, Pennyslvania, and received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts. He regularly takes time off on long working road trips, concentrating on documenting American culture. It was through these travels that Marc began his book project, Nevada Rose, which captures the places and personalities of Nevada’s legal brothels.

McAndrews’ work has been seen in magazines such as Time, Stern, Inc., Exit, Fortune Small Business, and others. He was a recipient of the Magenta Arts Foundation’s 2006 “Flash Forward” award. Nevada Rose was nominated for the 2009 NY Photo Awards and was an official selection for the 2009 Lucie Awards. His series “JROTC” was an official selection for the 2009 Lucie Awards. McAndrews has lectured at The New School, Sarah Lawrence College, Cooper Union, and New York’s International Center for Photography. He lives in New York.

Patty Kelly, whose book Lydia’s Open Door: Inside Mexico’s Most Modern Brothel (University of California Press, 2008) received the American Ethnological Society’s prestigious Sharon Stephens Award in 2009, is a well-known feminist anthropologist of the sex industry. Kelly’s writing has appeared in a variety of diverse publications, including the Los Angeles Times, $pread Magazine: Illuminating the Sex Industry, The Catholic Worker, and American Anthropologist. Currently a research professor in George Washington University’s Department of Anthropology, she lives in Philadelphia and New York.

Dennis Hof is “an American patriot, entrepreneur, and legal brothel owner.” Owner of The Bunny Ranch, Hof has been the subject of a profile in The New Yorker and the HBO documentary series, Cathouse.

Bill Higgins is on staff at The Hollywood Reporter. Prior to that he worked at Variety and The Los Angeles Times where he wrote the “Into the Night,” a column that chronicled the film world and its denizens. He has contributed frequently to Town & Country, US Weekly, and numerous other international publications.

Hardcover / $40
11″ x 8.5″
164 pages / 140 full-color photographs
ISBN 978-1–884167–15-7
May 2011

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