Joel-Peter Witkin

American photographer Joel-Peter Witkin's work deals with the theme of saint and sinner in a subversive religious context, along with finding beauty in the grotesque. His intricately staged photographs use assembled painted backgrounds, models and various props, which are then manually manipulated once the negative is formed before printing onto gelatin sliver print. The elaborate process producing exquisite luminous photographs in black and white depicting bizarre and shocking taboo scenes that the viewer cannot help but be pulled into. The end result is a photograph that resembles a black and white baroque painting more so than a photograph.

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Daily Delight ~ Roberto Ferri

Roberto Ferri

Prigione di lacrime 

Traditional Painting

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Irina Ionesco

The infamous French fashion photographer 

Irina Lonesco

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Richard Woods

Dear friend and very talented Australian Photographer Richard Woods' work is graceful, sublime and evocative.  Even when he tackles more challenging themes like fetish he does it with beauty and grace.  I hope you enjoy my selection of my favourite of his works, as you can see I particularly love his nudes.  

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Saturno Butto

Cult painter Saturno Butto portrays fetish alongside religious ritual, painstakingly executed in oil by a classically-trained hand. His work is darkly provocative as he explores themes around desire and passion through dominance and submission (BDSM), creating work that is rich and deeply stirring. 

Butto is being exhibited at the Piccola Galleria in Rosa Italy from 10 March - 20 April, so if you are in the region, I highly recommend you see his work in person!

Piccola Galleria 

Via S.Bonaventura 15
36027 Rosà.  Italy

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Daily Delight ~ Guy Bourdin

Guy Bourdin [1928 - 1991] ~ French Fashion Photographer

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Ellen Von Unwerth

German photographer, Ellen Von Unwerth has to be one of my all time favourites in her field. Her B&W photography is sublime, feminine, erotic, dark, provocative and playfully wicked. I do hope you enjoy my selection from her "Revenge" series. This perfectly describes her personality and the context of her work ~ "(Women) are not just there to be admired, they are there to be enjoyed."- Ellen Von Unwerth

By making her photographs less posed, Ellen Von Unwerth allows models to breathe, be themselves and ultimately feel sexier. The results are stunning and often stunningly sexual without exploiting or objectifying the models involved. For that, artists and admirers (i.e., any man with a pulse) owe Ellen Von Unwerth a multitude of thanks. They also need to thank her for launching the careers of modern beauties Claudia Schiffer, Estella Warren and Daniela Pestova among others. A glance through some of her raciest projects begs the question of whether Ellen Von Unwerth is as naughty as her photos. While she's something of an enigma, she does admit that some of her favorite photography sessions involve bondage and creating scenarios in which women dominate men. This goes back to her love of Bettie Page, a pinup icon that she paid tribute to in a 1998 Max photo shoot called "Back to Betty," featuring Eva Herzigova. An even kinkier side of Ellen Von Unwerth comes through in Revenge, her 2003 photo book featuring mud-covered women being flogged at a chateau before they turn the tables on the resident baroness and the chauffeur who brought them there. The domination themes might scare a few guys off (and turn a few others on), but Ellen Von Unwerth likes to reinforce that all of her photos are intended to be fun, not painful. http://au.askmen.com/celebs/women/model/ellen-von-unwerth/

See here a link to Ellen's photobook "Revenge"   I would love to own this book and in fact there are still copies available from various sources, so I had better start saving...

 

 

 

 

 

   

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Daily Delight ~ Alexandra Manukyan

Alexandra Manukyan ~ Breathe Again

24" x 24", Oil on Canvas.

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Exhumed Artists ~ Helmut Newton

German Photographer, Helmut Newton (1920-2004)

His aesthetic was branded 'porno chic'. To radical feminists, helmut newton was the antichrist - his work outraged many and they protested one of his exhibits by throwing paint on his photos.

'In my vocabulary, ART is a dirty word,' he said, but it can be assumed that the spirit of helmut newton's work has sympathised with the movement of the surrealists. He portraited amazonian women who live, sleep and breathe in immaculate make-up, heavy jewellery and vicious stiletto heels, gorgeous women, expensive gowns, and exotic locations - to create a unique imaginative world. His pictures are showing members from the margins of society engaged in fetish driven meetings with the social elite, surrounded by sumptuous hotels and ancient midnight streets, all of them saturated with decadence, luxury, and privilege. The magic of his art is its complete elusiveness, its cunning refusal to admit the true nature of its subject matter: the failure of reality and the triumph of desire.

Newton reintroduce elements of violence (or the implied threat of danger) by featuring semi-nude, highly germanic, intensely voluptuous models photographed from the rear holding pistols discreetly hidden from their beaus behind their backs. Knives or other instruments of carnage are held in reserve by delicious femmes fatales for moments of ostensible tenderness - and blindly trusting intimacy - with unsuspecting men ripe for the kill.   www.designboom.com

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