In this volume, contemporary visual artists investigate sadness through painting, sculpture, photography, and video. Sad Songs features a diverse collection of works unified by their melancholic tone and characterized by isolation, nostalgia and emotional desperation. From Katy Grannan's haunting photographic portraits in which the subjects are locked in some mysterious exchange with the unseen artist, to Keith Edmier's sculptural meditations on lost adolescence, the artists here continue a long tradition of romanticizing the somber. Also included are Justine Kurland, Jack Pierson, Robert Blanchon, René Ricard, Whitney Bedford, Robert Blanchon and Benjamin Butler amongst many others.