Tanya Dakin

I've been working with Tanya for over five years now. I also consider her a dear friend. Tanya has worked with over 70 photographers, and for good reason- she is incredibly photogenic and quite a chameleon. More than a few, including myself, consider her to be an inspiring muse. Tanya has always typically modeled nude, although ironically it is only recently that I've really been shooting nudes with her. I always considered her to be a great fashion model, and I've tended to gravitate towards that with her. These recent images, though, represent a different way of shooting for her.

Caroline & Vicky

I was up on a ladder for these shots. A ladder always makes for a nice point of view.

Ether

Relaxing with the freckles...

Di

I'm going to miss the rough floorboards...

Genevieve

Genevieve & goose bumps. Enough said.

Meira

Film noir meets Pin-Up.

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.

Percolate

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

D & B

Scratches.

Heff

Texture.

Tali De'Mar

This is a personal favorite...

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.

Hazel

First shoot with Hazel...

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.

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.

Jade Vixen

More from the last shoot with Jade Vixen...

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.

Iris & Devorah

Two new girls...

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...

Japanese Hand-made Doll

So pretty...