Worked here thirty-two years before I became captain. “Since I got too old to do maintenance on this building. I swear this is the slowest damn elevator I’ve ever encountered. “How long have you been flight captain of this elevator?” I ask as I wait.

I smile at his words, since my brother and father are both pilots. “I don’t think there’s an official title for my position, but I like to refer to myself as a flight captain, considering I do send people as high as twenty stories up in the air.” “I push the button for the elevator,” he says. He nods his head toward the elevator, and my eyes move to the illuminated numbers overhead. He somehow knows what floor I’m going to, even though this is the first time I’ve ever set foot in this apartment complex, and it’s definitely the first time I’ve ever laid eyes on this man. My eyes narrow as I process his question. He grunts as he sinks into the chair and then looks up at me again. He takes a few slow steps toward one of two velvet red chairs that are positioned against the wall next to the elevator. His curved posture and shaky stance give away that he isn’t a day less than eighty years old. Despite his somewhat morbid opening conversation, he can’t be that dangerous. I smile, but I can’t tell if I should be afraid or entertained.

“My grandfather used to say the placement of a birthmark was the story of how a person lost the battle in their past life. My hand instinctively goes up to my neck, and I touch the dime-sized mark just below my ear. He presses the up button on the elevator and faces me. My eyes widen, and I slowly turn toward the elderly gentleman standing at my side. “It was both shocking and titillating and captured so much white-hot energy coming off of Madonna in the early 1990s.“Somebody stabbed you in the neck, young lady.” “Thirty years on, ‘Sex’ is still somewhat controversial, but it still reads as a very body-positive, sex-positive book,” Himes said. Some of the proceeds will go toward Raising Malawi, a nonprofit founded by Madonna in 2006 to support orphans and vulnerable children in the southeast African country. Each print will be an edition of one and signed by Madonna and fashion photographer Steven Meisel, who shot the book, with prices ranging from $50,000 on the low end up to $300,000, according to Darius Himes, Christie’s deputy chairman and international head of photographs. In October, over 40 prints first published in “Sex” will go up for sale as part of a special standalone auction. Prints of photographs from Madonna’s wildly popular 1992 coffee table book “Sex” will be available for purchase for the first time at Christie’s New York this fall, part of ongoing projects to mark the 30th anniversary of the controversial publication. Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by The Art Newspaper, an editorial partner of CNN Style.

Ugly love book