An underground L.A. arts icon takes us inside his home and out into the night

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“It is like throwing out your own sex tape,” remarks artist Reynaldo Rivera about his new photography book “Propriedad Privada.”We’re sitting on his living room couch, waiting for artist Emma Camille Barreto (his “newest muse”) to arrive for a night shoot.She’s running late, so Rivera and I settle into his cavernous Victorian home to speak about how he combed through decades of his archive to create the book.

If his living room offers any clues, the task must have been challenging: hundreds, perhaps thousands, of his images hang on every wall and spill across many surfaces.Recently released by the boundary-pushing L.A.-based publisher Semiotext(e), “Propriedad Privada” (“Private Property”) compiles Rivera’s deeply private prints of lovers, friends and strangers.

Dubbed his “Blue Series,” the intimate body of work examines the ephemeral nature of sex, desire and love.“Guanajuato” (ca.

1997) shows a thin, boyish young man with only a towel wrapped around narrow hips as he flexes his biceps before a bedroom mirror.“Bianco, Reynaldo, Echo Park” (ca.

1995) plays with double exposure, presenting ghostly images of two men in bed.The room’s furniture remains eerily static, while their bodies’ movements leave traces imprinted around the frame.

The poetry and power of “Propriedad Privada” live in its thrilling abandon and constant ambiguity: It’s often unclear if Rivera and his subjects are friends, lovers or total strangers, such as in his portrait “Richard, downtown Los Angeles” (ca.2023).

Lit by street lights, the image features a striking man in a cowboy hat blowing bubblegum with a loose belt buckle.For Rivera, selecting the photos — many in beds, bathrooms and in the middle of sexual acts — wasn’t easy.

“It’s like an exorcism for all this fear and body shame that I grew up with,” he says.Reynaldo picks up a stack ...