Specialist Location - A Dominatrix

The Plan

I wanted to do a shoot that took me completely out of my comfort zone to an area of life I had no knowledge or experience in. I contacted a dominatrix who I got to hear of from a mutual friend with a view of taking some photos for my specialist location brief. We arranged to meet a few weeks later to discuss the idea. She was willing to go along with it so we arranged a date. She discussed in detail what she does and gave me links to various websites were I could learn about what it was she did, she is what is called a CP, which stands for corporal punishment. Clients come to her to be caned, slapped etc in a safe environment. She was quite clear that she didn't want to be recognised in the photographs or the environment in which they would be shot.

After researching various photographers (see different Posts) I decided I would do the shoot as a documentary piece, I would shoot as it was happening and images would come straight from camera with just a conversion to black and white done in photoshop and cropping were needed. I want the photos to be as natural as possible, I don't want them to look cheap or trashy or to embarrass the people who have agreed to me coming into a very private world and letting me photograph it. I want to show a glimpse of this life without actually identifying the people in it.

I would be using my Nikon D5100 with a Tamron 18 - 200mm lens, as the lens has no image stabilisation I would be taking a tripod to try and eliminate as much blur as possible. No lighting would be used so that the images are presented in a realistic documentary environment.

The Shoot

To say I was nervous was an understatement, I entered an environment so far removed from my life with both excitement and trepidation. Here are the final 10 images I have submitted which show a small slice of the CP world:

Blazers & School Caps Hung By The Door

 

Tying the Buckles

 

Who's been a naughty boy?

 

A big collector she showed me a collection of cuttings she had which I arranged into the above collage and photographed

 

Removing stockings and suspenders, a sign that the session is over

 

Slapping

 

Getting ready to play

 

Another of her collection signs and canes on a bench used for restraint

From a different angle

As it happens!

(this image has come back from DS with A horrid Green Tinge To it)

 

 

Evaluation

 

This wasn't the easiest of assignments to undertake, I had no previous knowledge of this world or what to expect when I got there so I just went with the flow and photographed what I saw. The main room had very little light whilst the conservatory attached had what can only be described as a flood light in it with the blinds drawn. I took dozens of photographs, some worked being converted to black and white and others clearly didn't and worked far better in colour. I'm quite pleased with the final images and have achieved what I set out to do, I've produced a brief glimpse into the world of CP without it being  tacky & cheap whilst not giving away the subjects identity or location. The exposure isn't as great as id like it to be on some of the images but in my opinion documentary photography of this kind can allow for such small flaws in the technical side because of the subject matter. I've shot various pieces from a variety of different angles and compositions. Having a little knowledge now of what goes on I feel I can only improve further the more I get to know about them, I was quite hesitant at times, not something I'm usually familiar with feeling! This will be developed further as we have agreed to it becoming a longer term project for the both of us, separate images not shown here are being used by her for her website. I have enough material for an exhibition, I may also send some of the photos to the specialist magazines in this field.

 

 

Photographer Research - Mary Ellen Mark

Mary Ellen Mark

Mary Ellen Mark is recognised as one of today's most respected and influential photographers in the world. For over four decades, she has traveled extensively to make pictures that reflect a high degree of humanism. Her images of our world's diverse cultures have become landmarks in the field of documentary photography. She has achieved worldwide visibility through her numerous books, exhibitions and editorial magazine work. She is a contributing photographer to The New Yorker and has published photo-essays and portraits in such publications as LIFE, New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair. She is drawn to those on the fringes of society,such as the homeless, drug addicts, prostitutes and gypsies.

She is also a Stills photographer and has worked on various blockbusters

Q. What do you believe is your ultimate responsibility as a photographer?

Mary Ellen: If you’re a documentary photographer being honest and fair is your ultimate responsibility.

I really like Mary ellen and the way she captures the fringes of society, her images are very raw and thought provoking.

 

Diane Arbus - Photographer Research

Diane Arbus ( March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people (dwarfs,giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers) or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal.". Arbus believed that a camera could be “a little bit cold, a little bit harsh” but its scrutiny revealed the truth; the difference between what people wanted others to see and what they really did see – the flaws. A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid . . . that she would be known simply as 'the photographer of freaks'"; however, that phrase has been used repeatedly to describe her. WIKIPEDIA

As part of my specialist location, I intend to shoot people we would not usually gain access to and Diane Arbus does just that, although I would not call my intended people freaks!

Robert Mapplethorpe - Research - Specialist Location

The Mapplethorpe work I am interested in for my specialist location includes homoerotic and BDSM acts (including coprophagia), and classical nudes. Mapplethorpe's X Portfolio series sparked national attention in the early 1990s when it was included in The Perfect Moment, a traveling exhibition funded by National Endowment for the Arts. The portfolio includes some of Mapplethorpe's most explicit imagery, including a self-portrait with a bullwhip inserted in his anus. Though his work had been regularly displayed in publicly funded exhibitions, conservative and religious organizations, such as the American Family Association, seized on this exhibition to vocally oppose government support for what they called "nothing more than the sensational presentation of potentially obscene  material.

Steven Meisel - Photographer Research - Specialist Location

One of Meisel's first jobs was to work for fashion designer Halston as an illustrator. He also taught illustration part-time at Parsons. Meisel never thought he could become a photographer. He admired photographers like Jerry Schatzberg, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Bert Stern. He felt that illustration was a thing of the past and found photography as a lasting medium. Later on, while working at Women's Wear Daily as an illustrator, he went to Elite Model Management where Oscar Reyes a booker who liked his illustrations allowed him take pictures of some of their models. He would photograph them in his apartment in Gramercy Park or on the street: on weekdays he would work at Women's Wear Daily and on weekends with the models. One of them was Phoebe Cates. Some of these models took their pictures to Seventeen magazine to show their model books and the people at Seventeen subsequently called Meisel and asked if he wanted to work with them.

Although a Fashion photographer, I have chosen the work of Steven Meisel based purely on the work he has done with Madonna for her "sex" book. I like the way he has posed her in an erotic style without it looking vulgar.

Thomas Ruff - Photographer Research - Specialist Location *WARNING CONTAINS SEXUAL CONTENT*

Thomas Ruff produced a series of images entitled "Nudes". Ruff's images here are based on Internet pornography, which was digitally processed and obscured without any camera or traditional photographic device. My Specialist location brief will be of a Dominatrix and I want to produce a set of abstract images similar to these of Ruff's but mine will be done on camera.