Customer Comments
Average Customer Review: Number of Reviews: 1

grantpw@aol.com from usa , December 28, 1998
The finest vintage fetish collection !!!
This collection along with taschens release of bizarre is a fabulous treat indeed. The packaging is top notch, and whats contained inside is sheer brilliance. Heels , stockings, dominant damsels.. this is the first 36 issues of this fanzine put out from 1951 - 1959. The fiction is what youd expect for 50's underground sexuality. A subtle reminder of times when underwear mattered!!

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Also worth looking at is Gatewood's The Body and Beyond which contains some material reprinted from Primitives. If you're into blood play, True Blood (text by David Aaron Clark) is practically a must. 

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Reviews
Hustler's Leg World, 3/99
Goedde's fetish images have an almost classical purity. Leather boots are to Goedde what daffodils were to Wordsworth. . . . The Beauty of Fetish is a fine celebration of Goedde's style; more important, it's a breakthrough book that lends credence and (that dread word) respectability to the excesses and the passions, as well as the uniqueness and commonalities, in the world of fetish.

Taboo, 2/99
The stories told in The Beauty of Fetish are subtle. Steve Goedde's images portray moments that resonate with a deep and familiar eroticism. . . . The photographs are very personal to Steve, and honest.

Libido Magazine
One new book of note, The Beauty of Fetish by photographer Steve Diet Goedde, from the Swiss publishing house Edition Stemmle . . . comes up a winner. . . . The result is a collection of fetish photos that are cool yet warm, sexy but not overtly sexual . . . and inviting rather than off-putting. Amazingly, Goedde manages to put a human face on fetish fashion.

New York Newsday, 12/6/98
[Goedde] means to get at the surface allure of fetish wear. That he also captures the personas of those who wear it adds to the genuine erotic charm of his work.

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Average Customer Review: Number of Reviews: 1

Gary Meyer (GarMeyer@aol.com) from Reno, Nevada , April 1, 1998
challenges the fetish tradition
Kern’s thrillingly lit subjects share a confident self-possession, a sexual self-assurance. These grrrls go downtown to look for fun. These grrrls can take care of themselves. The challenge of their direct gazes belies the vulnerability of their nakedness. Their inner strength allows their submission to the ropes, the camera, the viewer. Reviews of Kern’s work typically misinterpret his models’ streetwise spunk as predatory, sadistic or just plain nasty. Maybe because they don’t conform to the air-brushed, siliconed skin-mag stereotype. The gun series packs a political punch. In a shot whose symbolism is crude but effective, a model in a police hat, a mostly removed blue uniform shirt, and thigh high, sheer dark stockings and panties, holds a gun in her outstretched right hand. Her face is contorted into a tough-guy grimace, the mouth open as if barking the order to freeze. Her left hand caresses a lifelike dildo, holding it in place against her crotch. Reminds me of an army training chant: "This is my rifle, this is my gun. This is for shooting, this is for fun." Lots of noir riffs, a Patty Hearst homage with an automatic; more jarring Kernsian contrast. What do you call a nude woman with a gun? "Ma’am." Eric Kroll’s striking blond wife Lynka appears in several shots. In one starkly formal portrait, she wears a billed leather cap, a perfect cherub’s-mouth scarlet lipstick job and a green-lit black latex dress with no bra. Only her head, shoulders and the top of her bust are shown. A fine, barely visible blue vein crosses the top of her left breast, tribute to the photographer’s precision. The blue eyes, red lips, latex and leather make the starkest possible contrast to her flesh, so pale that the line of her jaw almost vanishes into her throat. The subtle highlights on that near-translucent skin must have been hell to bring out. Succeeding technically in this one, Kern demonstrates a Mapplethorpe-ian level of lighting skill. The contrast between the baby-like innocence of skin tone and the atavistic power of garments and makeup makes this image click. That, and the ambiguity of her enigmatic, cool, closed-lipped attitude. She could be awaiting the command of a master or the compliance of a slave. Her unsettling authority keeps you looking for a long moment, wondering what’s expected of you. The candle series challenges the fetish tradition. The models become human candelabra, the shafts of wax, with their pretty but threatening flames, protruding from mouths or elsewhere. One arresting B/W close-up shows a face, a multiply-pierced ear, a sharply shadowed neck and blurred hair and shoulders. The face is bent backward in a frozen posture, the candle seemingly set deep in the throat. The composition, abetted by the deliberate obscuring of details through the very narrow range of focus and the harsh contrast, suggests a beautiful gargoyle, doomed to hold that candle until the world around it crumbles away. The last section features images of exquisitely formal rope-work, inspired by the Japanese bondage tradition. Like the rest, they are dramatic, challenging, obsessive, mysterious and fresh.

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Reviews
Synopsis
An erotic and playful collection of fetish photography by one of the major artists in the field today. Never simply a shocking image nor a campy send-up, the photographs in this collection examine the often overlooked, intimate ways in which desire and fantasy interact in female sexuality.

From the Publisher
"Beside Frulein Kloster, Madonna seems like the girl next door." -David Rimanelli, HARPER'S BAZAAR

"Kloster captures the kink, camp, and sensuality of the S/M scene in a way that would make Helmut Newton blush." --Nora Burns, PAPER magazine

"In FORMS OF DESIRE, Kloster refines her vision of the erotic and invites us to stroll through a gallery dedicated to female beauty and fantasy. Each photo is a little world which invites the viewer to enter and take (or receive) appropriate action." -Pat Califia, from the Foreword

From the Inside Flap
In the trend of S/M and fetishism in the art that Doris Kloster helped popularize with her first self-titled book, Kloster remains the only prominent female photographer to do significant work. Now, with her new book, FORMS OF DESIRE, Kloster transcends that genre and utilizes her unique position to examine a broader range of erotic expression, pointedly exploring female sexuality in all of its various guises.

With this collection of nudes and portraits, all shot on location, Kloster invites the viewer to experience the rich and varied sexuality of a multiracial group of strong, adventurous women. The result is nothing less than a compendium of female sexual expression, exploring different facets of women's sexual natures-from fetishism and role-playing to the use of toys and gender-bending.

As cofounder and editorial director of FAD magazine, Kloster has been walking the cultural edge for over ten years, photographing sex radicals and capturing women's sexual power with her lens. FORMS OF DESIRE is her most accomplished work to date; her strongest statement on sexuality, power, and gender.

About the Author
Artist and alternative journalist Doris Kloster received a B.A. in Art History from Boston University and an M.A. in Studio Art from New York University. A freelance photographer, she has shot editorial features, advertising, record albums, and book covers in London, Paris, Milan, and New York City. Kloster is cofounder and editorial director of FAD magazine. She has curated and her work has been featured in numerous art gallery exhibitions in the United States and Europe and collected in one previous book, DORIS KLOSTER (Taschen). She teaches photography at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

  There is also a hardcover, signed and numbered edition which Amazon sells for $150. 

Amazon.com  Price: $31.99 

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Customer Comments
Average Customer Review: Number of Reviews: 1

A reader , April 28, 1997
These volumes reveal your grandparents deep secrets.
The Complete Reprints of John Willie's Bizarre is a superb reference collection of taboo attitudes and trends from the early part of the 20th century. They reveal your grandparents and great-grandparents deep sexual secrets and practices. They also shed light on the 19th and 20th Century finishing schools, and the methods used in these bizarre institutions. In the words or Eric Kroll, "John Willie is the father of modern fetish art and humor. He helped get fetish art into the mainstream." *****(out of 5)...

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Customer Comments
Average Customer Review: Number of Reviews: 2

A reader from New York , March 24, 1999
Better history of Batters' life than a showcase of his work.
Batters was a genius of a lensman! Too me, he captured the essence of a woman's physical beauty. Many of Elmer's fans would have loved to have been his assistant. Instead, it was his wife who stood by his side. It must have been a unique relationship.

I had the opportunity to talk with Elmer by telephone a couple of times before his death. "From the Tip of the Toes to the Top of the Hose," by Eric Kroll, covers Batters'life and times well but it lacks many of the photographers best pieces of work. Too many pages reveal models in boring themed sequences. Many of the magazines Elmer published were better.

The book shows how having an interest in what Batters loved to photograph was not abusive to women or men. That made a positive connection with me at a time when I wondered if I was the only person in the world who shared his desires.

Hopefully, his wife is sharing in Kroll's profits.

This is a book that Elmer liked and a must have for true Batters' fans. If you're lucky enough, you'll receive a copy that the genius signed before his death.

morbius@together.net from Vermont , April 13, 1998
Feet of Desire
Elmer Batters will be solefully missed. When the 1960s-70s master of leg and foot fetish photography died in 1997, he left behind a vast portfolio of nude and semi-nude female images--ranging in body form from the skinny to the plump--and displaying legs and feet in seamed, gartered stockings, arching alluring wrinkled soles, or spreading bare toes in erotic Andelusian Fans. Batters wasn't a great photographer, either from an artistic or technical standpoint, but he did have a strong passion for his subject matter and that translated itself into a wonderful body of work. Batters photos will probably appeal only to the true foot fetishist or erotic image collector. But he's worth a look since he almost singlehandedly established foot fetishism as an artform that is being enjoyed by millions of male (and female) readers of magazines like LEG SHOW, LEG ART, etc. And that's no mean feet!

Elmer Batters, Legs That Dance to Elmer's Tune 
(Taschen, 1998), Hardcover, 360 pages, $70.00 (only $48.78 from Amazon). 

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Customer Comments
Average Customer Review: Number of Reviews: 1

corseted@hotmail.com from San Francisco, CA, USA , December 17, 1997
an excellent stand-alone for any pin-up/fetish gallery!
An in depth look into the history of Stanton and his illustrations. Additional info into the publication of his work. This book will save the Specialty Pin-up and Fetish curious reader much time in that it covers a large variety of styles - year to year and publication variations - A very full overveiw of the style. As an art book, it is large, and may dominate some coffee tables. Also bear in mind that the subject-content isn't for the mainstream. Stanton's publications bring you through a wide variety of views, and Kroll's editing is very complimentary. If you are only a bit interested in the genre, and do not wish to buy lots of books, this one is your best find.

Also worth looking at is Stanton's Dominant Wives & Other Stories (30% off from Amazon) which contains over 1000 illustrations and 28 of his illustrated tales, almost all of Dominant women. 

Amazon.com  Price: $19.99  Order this book 

If you like Kroll's work, you might also want to look at Beauty Parade (Taschen, 1997) which Amazon sells in hardcover for only $20.99.

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Customer Comments
Average Customer Review: Number of Reviews: 4

A reader , May 16, 1999
Recommended
His art is about high-octane masculinity, with every straining muscle of these muscular bodies lovingly detailed under clothing about to rip apart at the seams. And that includes the crucial zone below the belt, both fore and aft. There was nothing ambiguous about Tom of Finland's interest in his objects of desire: "If I don't have an erection when I'm doing a drawing, I know it's no good," he himself said. The eroticism is naked, even aggressive. The poses inevitably consigned his work to the pornography shelves, and the walls of leather bars in the gay scene. So far there has been no account of the artistic virtuosity of his work.

The present volume traces the life and career of this important artist. Born in southern Finland, Tom played the piano at local coffee shops to supplement his income as a graphic artist until his watercolors of male sexuality began to appear as covers on major American gay publications. His impact as an artist has since stretched far beyond the gay scene.

About the Author

Art historian Micha Ramakers has long been studying post-war homosexual art, particularly that of Tom of Finland. A well-known writer for gay and lesbian magazines, he has also authored books on international gay and lesbian politics, and was director of the Brussels Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. He is currently compiling the fourth Pink Book of the ILGA (International Lesbian and Gay Association) and works for the European Community in Brussels.

Text in English / German / French, approximately 350 pages, 500 illustrations

A reader from Silverlake CA , May 5, 1999
A Great Book By A Great Artist
Tom of Finland helped shape a positive self-image in the gay community at a time when being gay was still considered to be a psychological disorder. He has finally been recognized as a great artist and chronicler of the gay "superman" not just in his own country but throughout the world. This book is beautifully put together: The editor and archivist have created a work with very little text and have allowed the wonderful images speak for the artist. A true collectors item.

rice lake wisconsin u.s.a. from u.s.a. rice lake wisconsin , February 16, 1999
erotic of beautiful proportions
a book that should be on every bed.

A reader from New York City , December 31, 1998
Tom is on Top
This fantastic collection of Tom of Finland's best work is essential to any study of post-WWII sexuality. Although Tom's pornographic sketches speak to gay males directly, a wider audience should find this collection fascinating because Tom's work tracks the changing image of masculinity in modern Western society. I've proudly placed this high-quality massive tome on my coffee table and my guests (straight, gay and undefined) have all been drawn to and captivated by the art of Tom of Finland.

There is also an excellent biography of Tom of Finland by F. Valentine Hooven which contains a fair amount of his artwork. Amazon sells it in paperback for $10.36. 

Amazon.com  Price: $11.96 

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Reviews
Synopsis
Curvaceous, friendly and wholesome-looking, Playboy pinup Betty Page was the perfect compliment to the still-innocent fantasies of young men during the Eisenower years. Betty Page Confidential includes a biography of the reclusive goddess, an official Betty Page trivia quiz and 100 photos.

Customer Comments
Average Customer Review: Number of Reviews: 1

Gary Meyer (GarMeyer@aol.com) from Reno, NV , April 2, 1998
the girl-next-door American icon in all her glory
Bunny Yeager met Betty Page in Miami in 1954, during one of Page’s annual pilgrimages to the sun, sand and surf she adored. Page was the top pin-up model in New York at the time and Yeager an aspiring photographer. They hit it off and Page agreeably posed even when Yeager could only pay her $5. They had a lot in common. Yeager started out as a model herself, taking camera courses at a vocational school, for fun and to augment her portfolio with self-portraits. Both were expert seamstresses, sewing their own bikinis. Bunny Yeager never intended to become a top professional glamour photographer and Betty Page never intended to become a legend. The "Prettiest Photographer in the World" title was bestowed on Yeager by US Camera magazine in August of ’53 and paid off in increasing prestige and opportunities. Her famous seasonal shot of Page wearing a Santa hat and a wink, decorating a Christmas tree, was bought by Playboy for their January, 1955 centerfold for $100. This was a more innocent time. Pin-up was not pornography and girlie pix were not gynecological. Full frontal nudity wasn’t published and photos revealing pubic hair were prohibited from the US Mail. Buck Henry, who wrote the introduction, had to resort to under-the-counter transactions with Times Square newsies to acquire amateur camera club shots of the girl-next-door American icon in all her glory. Acting was Betty’s dream. But Hollywood and then Broadway rejected her due to her immutable Nashville accent and maybe due to her powerful build. She never looked like she needed a leading man to lean on. She was more Daisy Mae than Marilyn Monroe. Her regimen was ascetic: natural foods, no tobacco or alcohol, frequent workouts at the health club, long swims. She once beat several Navy men in a swimming race, much to their chagrin. On a long despairing walk on a Coney Island Beach in 1950 or so, she stopped to admire the exercise routine of a handsome NYC cop and amateur photographer who asked her to pose for him and subsequently suggested she grow bangs to hide her prominent forehead. By 1957, when she inexplicably disappeared from the spotlight, she had become the hottest babe in the world. The arc of her fame led from the camera clubs to the men’s magazines to Irving Klaw, whose Movie Star News still offers glossy 8x10s of the thousands of shots he and his wife Paula took of Betty. Some Klaw photos are included here to document Betty’s alter egos as vamping dominatrix, spanker, spankee and burlesque victim of baroque bondage. Note: Madonna did not invent the cone bra. Yeager brought out the best in Betty Page in her ideal milieu, the beaches of Florida; her skin a flawless suntanned sheen, her infectious joy lighting up that thousand watt smile even brighter and her natural intimacy with the camera making you swear you were there. Betty cavorts about an amusement park and the shoreline, playful, puckish, clowning with some seaweed, mugging on some kiddie rides, blazing with energy and abandon. It’s no act. The book’s climax is eight shots from the famous boat series, Betty au natural on deck offshore. In several, her eyes are closed and she’s reveling in the pleasure of the waves, the salt air and the sunlight warming her beautiful form. Betty once said that she was "happy as a lark, stark naked." These photographs are not about sex but about exuberance, the sheer, physical delight of corporeal existence. Betty is Eve before the apple. She has no shame. She is in her favorite place, doing what she loves best, her magnetic vitality transporting us all. The secret of Betty’s appeal isn’t mysterious. She found perfect pleasure in simply being alive. And she gave it to us.

If you like her work, you might also want to look at her book Bunny's Honeys which showcases her work over the years with a variety of models. 

Amazon.com  Price: $15.96 

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Another Page book worth looking at is: Betty Page: Queen of Pin-up (Taschen, 1993), $12.99.

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Reviews
Synopsis
Bettie Page sent the world for a cold shower when her first photo appeared in Flirt magazine in 1951. In this 96-page coffee table book, Silke explores Bettie's influence on popular culture, from dime novels to paperbacks, and from painting to advertising. Includes photos of Bettie, many never before seen, as well as artists' representations of Bettie. Illustrations in color and B&W. Graphic novel format. Adult Content.

Customer Comments
Average Customer Review: Number of Reviews: 1

actfig@earthlink.net from L.A. Ca. , November 25, 1998
a must have for amy bettie page fan
Let me just say if your a bettie page fan you,ll love all the pic,drawing and hard to find nude of Ms page. Its a short book but well layed out.

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Sexual Art : Photographs That Test the Limits (1996); Sexual Portraits: Photographs of Radical Sexuality (1994); and Lust & Romance: Rated X Fine Art Photographs (1998).

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A second volume, Body Probe: Torture Garden 2 - Mutant Flesh and Cyber Primitives, is due out soon