Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Little One

I refer to Little One as the little monkey. She's very petite, and I've seen her climb these windows as if they were her natural environment.


















Friday, November 16, 2012

Percolate

I like mixing the burlap with the rope- they seem meant for each other.







Friday, September 28, 2012

Ether

I almost forgot about these- they're from a few years ago, actually. They seem to fit in nicely with my newer work. I can't say that about a lot of my older work.








Saturday, September 22, 2012

Meira

I've always loved the point of view from the floor. I wish I saw it more often in photography. Weird thing, in fact- I did an image search of "point of view erotic photography", and there were a few of my images. Not much else good, except a couple Ellen Von Unwerth's. Probably not a coincidence, since she's a big influence on me, although I don't purposely try to cop her.




Monday, September 17, 2012

Dessa & Jon

I am of the firm belief that neither nudity nor explicitness is necessary to make an image erotic. I think that such is the case with this image. I typically start shoots with clothes on and try to get something interesting there, first. Not that I'm going to abandon nudity anytime soon since I like the idea of creating the question of whether it's art or porn. I do not believe for a moment that my work classifies as porn, but of course, that is just my opinion. I enjoy being the provocateur, and I like other people to ask that question about my work themselves. In the end, there is always someone, somewhere, who finds Victoria's Secret catalogs to be good porn— not to mention even more seemingly innocuous imagery elsewhere. Beauty and/or porn, as well as what is perhaps erotic, is always in the eye of the beholder.




Saturday, August 18, 2012

Monday, July 23, 2012

Suspensions


Over the past couple of years, I have been doing suspensions in my studio in collaboration with Ian. He is very experienced with rope bondage and suspension. In the BDSM world, "full suspension" refers to suspending a person's entire body off the floor with the aid of ropes, chains, or cables. A typical full suspension is an advanced and somewhat risky form of rope bondage. It involves the use of elaborate knots, and many practitioners use modular rope segments that can be quickly released in case the subject experiences a loss of circulation, unwanted pain, or loses consciousness, etc. This is one of the reasons that Ian does the suspensions. Besides that I'm not really experienced enough to do suspensions, it wouldn't be wise for me to be oblivious to someone's safety while I'm photographing them. Most of the rope work that is photographed on the floor, however, are things that I have done myself.

One of the reasons that I began an interest in doing a series on suspensions is that, both in books and surfing the net, it is very hard to find many well-made photographs of suspensions. It's not difficult to find well-done rope work, but the combination of great rope work and images seems to be greatly lacking. So it seemed to be something really worth taking on. After this portfolio builds and expands (I'd like to move the setting outside in trees, for example), I'd like to perhaps get a book published on it.
















Thursday, May 10, 2012

Key

While I usually post new work, these go back quite a bit- five years. I had forgotten about them. They're not as overtly erotic as my newer work- I think that they have a nice, slow burn...












Thursday, April 12, 2012

Devorah

I'm very happy about this first shoot with Devorah. I've been trying the point of view like the first image for a while now, and I think that this might be the most successful so far. More images of Devorah to come, especially of a shoot with her friend Iris...















Sunday, February 19, 2012

Sonia

These are very recent images from a shoot with Sonia, a very versatilely talented musician. A classically trained cellist, she often records music inspired by dreamy soundtracks. Her most recent effort, though, is a hip hop album that she is just finishing up. For these shots, I was trying out my third bathroom studio- and I thought that I'd try something different, considering this bathroom has a tub. I always wanted to do some Ophelia inspired imagery- long one of my favorite visual allegories. I assumed that it would probably wind up looking cheesy, but I'm actually very happy with these- which definitely has a lot to do with Sonia being quite the muse.











Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Lucy & Nathalia

It always seems to be easy to get two girls to do a shoot together- I can't recall ever getting a decline after suggesting it. It's actually much harder to get a guy to do a shoot with the girlfriend or wife. The woman is typically game- it tends to be the guy who is apprehensive. Guys tend to not like having their performance documented. I actually had a few shoots not materialize because the guy got cold feet. It was something that was a bit frustrating at first- getting guy/girl shoots was something that I really wanted to add to my portfolio for a couple of reasons. One reason was aesthetic- I wanted some balance, since I thought that a lot of girl/girl looked unbalanced. The most important reason was that I knew that once either a woman and/or couple viewed my portfolio, and saw some images like that, then they would be inspired to try it as well. Which is exactly what happened. People don't always know what they want until they see it. Not everyone has the imagination to envision possibilities, nor do they necessarily want to be the first to try something new. But when they see a good example of how it will turn out- it definitely breaks the ice. That's how I wound up doing so much erotic photography in general. It's a domino effect. When people see my work, they often get a very visceral reaction- "Oh, I want to be involved in that!".







Friday, January 27, 2012

Kel

The following quote is from a NY Times article that I read recently:
"No organ is more promiscuous than the eye, and no appetite more insatiable than the hunger to look. These truths go a long way toward explaining the preoccupations of a culture whose interest in imagery is defining."
I could easily have a lot to say about what I feel regarding this quote. It is probably best to just leave it here on it's own, though, since the reason I like it so much is that it sums up many vague thoughts that I have- and so well in just a couple of sentences...

The following images are of Kel, from a recent shoot.
















Sunday, January 22, 2012

Lucy & Nathalia

Here is a Helmut Newton influenced image from a recent shoot with Lucy and Nathalia.






Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Natalie

I like how these two images are so similar, yet so different at the same time. In the first, I focused on the face, which is friendly and inviting. On the second I'm focusing on the rope and breasts, and there is wonderful tension happening. While I definitely like the second image better,  I none the less find the comparison really interesting.