A photographer of striking versatility as well as one of the world's finest photographic printmakers, Bob Carlos Clarke has made a wide range of memorable images in his career. Alongside photographs that transport his brilliant technique into a world of ambiguous eroticism, he also makes finely nuanced still lives that impart an uncanny humanism to inanimate objects.
"Best tip in affordable contemporary erotic photography is Irish-born Bob Carlos Clarke. Both Maclean and Juliet Hacking, head of Christie's photography department, tip him as the new Helmut Newton (the German-Australian photographer... - The Observer, Sunday May 7, 2006.
When Night Is Falling... Throughout Patricia Rozema’s third film, conservatives tangle with
liberals, men with women, and heterosexuals with those of more fluid
sexual persuasions. Surface tension aside, When Night Is Falling
feels more personal than political. Camille (Pascale Bussières) teaches
mythology at a Christian college in Toronto. Her fiancé, Martin (Henry
Czerny, Clear and Present Danger), is a fellow theologian. Their superior, Reverend DeBoer (David Fox, The Saddest Music in the World),
encourages them to marry. When Camille’s dog dies, she neglects to
inform Martin. At a laundromat, she meets Petra (Rachael Crawford), a
circus performer, who offers support. She also leaves her card, so
Camille seeks her out, but when Petra makes a pass, she flees. Petra
tries again, so Camille talks her into being friends, but mutual
attraction proves too strong to resist. A simplistic reading suggests
that the death of a pet can lead to experimentation, except Rozema (I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing)
aims for a metaphorical reading rather than a literal one. Though the
narrative isn't autobiographical, she also attended a Calvinist
institution (the same one as writer/director Paul Schrader). It's a
testament to her skill that the film feels so fresh, since the
storyline echoes Lianna (the academic milieu) and anticipates Tipping the Velvet
(the circus angle). It's also one of the more quotable same-sex love
stories of the 1990s. As Martin tells Camille, "Maybe you can imagine
more intoxicating options. That's okay--that's what imagination's for."
To Rozema's heroine, however, fulfillment is for experiencing, not imagining.
Lie With Me... Shot in sunny Toronto and set to a dreamy score, Lie With Me
looks and sounds like an art film, but the end result isn't quite so
lofty. The plot is thin and the dialogue superfluous, but no
matter--Canada's Clément Virgo (Love Come Down) just wants to
turn you on and he has enlisted two attractive, uninhibited young
performers to assist in his aims. Leila (Lauren Lee Smith, The L Word) and David (Eric Balfour, Six Feet Under)
meet at a party. He's with his girlfriend, but finds himself drawn to
her. The feeling is mutual. She's alone, but quickly finds an
unattached hipster with whom to have a tryst. David catches her in the
act. Instead of turning away, he watches. They start seeing each other
immediately afterwards. "I'm not hooked on danger, [I'm] hooked on
sex," Leila claims, but she isn't exactly the most trustworthy
narrator. She wants a purely physical relationship, while David wants
something more. They return to their old lives, but the obsession
refuses to die. Based on the novella by Virgo's partner, Tamara Berger,Lie With Me plays like a low-budget cross between Adrian Lyne's overrated 9 1/2 Weeks and Wayne Wang's underrated The Center of the World.
G Is for Games (Erotic Alphabet) ... G is for Games sounds promising with its theme of "games of
skill and chance,"....Kristina Wright's "Seven Minutes in Heaven,"
about a young man tied in a closet so that he is "forced" to be the
object of desire for a series of increasingly more aggressive and sexy
women visitors was the best of the lot, and very hot and
squirm-inducing; "The Big Touchdown" by Erica Dumas was surprisingly
steamy as well, featuring a convincing cheerleader and football player
in the back seat on touchdown night. Alison Tyler's "The Game" revved
things up at the end with an edgy tale of sex and BDSM among a group of
queer women rock stars and groupies...I recommend reading G is for Games for the very good stories... -- T.R. Moss-alt.com
Thomas Rowlandson, Erotic Portfolio, Drawings and Etchings... This collection of drawings illustrates the talent of Thomas Rowlandson as he captures on paper both the popular and aristocratic joyous ribaldry of the time, with a charming and humorous wit. A talented painter and graduate of the London Royal Academy, Rowlandson was also a gambler and a bon vivant. A keen observer of the human comedy and a master caricaturist, he published numerous erotic illustrations, etchings and engravings which have kept all their vigor for our enduring pleasure.
F Is for Fetish (Erotic Alphabet) ...
"I began to lust for each fetish soon after opening Alison Tyler's recent book F is for Fetish.
A bike mechanic's smudged, strong hands, golden showers from a goddess
in a clawfoot bathtub, and decadently soiled maribou slippers -- each
of these quickly drew me in. Each story in this collection features a
distinct moment where the plot falls away and the story is devoted to
its fetish object, specifying its particular hotness and how it makes
the narrator feel -- one young man tastes his Mistress's toes through
her musky fishnets with adoration and lust; a hungry boot slut inhales
the whiff of acrid boot polish melting in the hot sun as she kneels to
polish a series of military boots. The stories were very hot for that
very intensity, that rareness." -- T.R. Moss-alt.com
The Art of Arousal: A Celebration of Erotic Art throughout History... Well-known sex therapist Westheimer here presents a provocative, richly eclectic, inspirational collection of erotic art. Chapters proceed methodically from flirtation and seduction to foreplay, the embrace, solitary and group pleasures and conclude with blissful exhaustion--a loose framework for organizing more than 100 color reproductions of works by Georgia O'Keeffe, Titian, Watteau, Durer, Manet, Courbet, Egon Schiele, David Hockney and others.
Photography for Perverts... Ever dreamed of immortalizing yourself, your sweetie or a friend at their most erotic and fetishistic moments?
Master fetish photographer Charles Gatewood, the "family photographer
of America's sexual underground" for more than four decades, shows you
how to do your own outrageous and erotic fetish photography.
Erotic spanking... Erotic spanking is the practice of spanking another person for the sexual gratification of either or both parties. Subjects may use their hands, or other tools, such as spanking paddles or canes. Activities range from occasional sensual interplay to domestic discipline and may or may not include a variety of implements. Many cultures described pain as an aphrodisiac early on — the Kama Sutra, in particular, goes into specific detail on how to properly strike a partner during sex.
Practice
Many spankings are carried out with the use of bare hands, or with spanking implements such as paddles, straps, hairbrushes, and belts.
Sometimes other implements are used for the activity: such as a cane, riding crop, whip, switch (rod), birch, gloves, a plastic bottle (the action is called bottling), a ruler (even a yardstick) or martinet. However, these would not accurately be called spanking. Erotic spankings are commonly combined with other forms of sexual foreplay, such as oral sex, sexual roleplaying and/or ageplay. The most common type of erotic spanking is administered on the bare buttocks, but can also be combined with bondage, in order to heighten sexual arousal and feelings of helplessness in the spankee.
Positions used may include:
* over the knees (OTK) or across the lap
* stooped over a chair or couch, or bench
* on hands and knees (bed or floor)
* on shoulder of spanker
* kneeling on a bed or ottoman, stooped over with hands on the floor
* bent under the arm of the spanker
* lying face down on a bed
* bent over, touching toes or over a desk
* lying on back with legs raised upward and toward chest
* handcuffed to a bed
* tied to a doorway
* tied to a tree or pole that is in a safe area outside
* legs spread apart, almost in the splits position.
Those interested in giving or receiving erotic spankings are sometimes known as spankophiles. Examples include the poet Algernon Swinburne (as implied repeatedly in his poetry) and the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as detailed in his autobiography Confessions:
... Miss Lambercier... exerted a mother's authority, even to inflicting on us... the punishment of infants... Who would believe this childish discipline, received at eight years old, from the hands of a woman of thirty, should influence my propensities, my desires, my passions, for the rest of my life... To fall at the feet of an imperious mistress, obey her mandates, or implore pardon, were for me the most exquisite enjoyments, and the more my blood was inflamed by the efforts of a lively imagination the more I acquired the appearance of a whining lover."
For her pleasure... A delicious twist on erotic romance, and the debut collection from a
hot new author.Three novellas. Two interlocking stories. One sizzling
read.Nice set up: one spirited woman in Kit Townsend, and two hot
buddies, Ryder and Mac, who take turns giving Kit what she needs. It's
the perfect no-strings triangle and while it doesn't exactly follow the
rules, neither does Kit. But when love unexpectedly throws these three
friends for a loop, can they still have a happy ending?
A photographer of striking versatility as well as one of the world's finest photographic printmakers, Bob Carlos Clarke has made a wide range of memorable images in his career. Alongside photographs that transport his brilliant technique into a world of ambiguous eroticism, he also makes finely nuanced still lives that impart an uncanny humanism to inanimate objects.
