Note: Contains violence and sexual references. Mariel Clayton takes humorous, erotic, and often disturbing photographs of dolls. Inspired by an encounter in a Tokyo toy shop, her images are staged within miniature rooms, inserting a peculiar mix of bawdiness and ultra-violence into seemingly innocent domestic scenes. The dolls’ fixed smiles and outrageous acts poke fun […]
Category: Erotic
Robert Mapplethorpe’s Photography: BDSM and Beyond
Note: Contains sexual references and nudity. True artists are distinguished by the complex emotions they bring to the artistic process and by the enduring impact of their art. In the 1970s Robert Mapplethorpe, in his 20s, conceived of a successful career as a photographer. From the start, his work stunned the art world. More than […]
Update: Brian Cattelle’s Nation-Wide Project to Photograph Nude Women in Sites of Decay
Note: Contains nudity. Last March we featured the work of Brian Cattelle, an American photographer who embarked on an ambitious project called “BARE USA.” The concept was simple, yet powerful: to travel to each of the 50 states, photographing nude models in abandoned buildings, thereby reinvesting scenes of neglect with beauty and new life. On November […]
10 Erotic Movies From East Asia
Erotic films navigate the oceans of sexual desire, no matter whether that desire is frustrated and repressed or messily fulfilled. It is a category that spans the space between explicitness and restraint, between romance and pornography. Here are ten films from countries of the East Asian region—chiefly Japan, but also Hong Kong, South Korea and […]
Playful Magic Tricks by Kostis Fokas
Note: Contains nudity and sexual references. If you are familiar with “Sleeveface,” people holding up album covers in front of their faces to create portrait illusions, then you’ll enjoy the photographic work of Kostis Fokas—instead of using LP covers he uses printed t-shirts and beach towels. From humans levitating or turning into tigers, it is […]
It’s Not Milk: Ivan Alifan’s Surreal and Seductive Paintings
Note: Contains sexual references. “It’s Not Milk” is a series of oil paintings by Ivan Alifan that examine sexuality and the modern gaze. His figures literally ooze with eroticism, their faces eager and serene as they receive the milk-white anointment. Some of his paintings involve dripping giants immersed in surreal landscapes. Alifan’s portraits of sensuality […]
The Cinema of Walerian Borowczyk: Something to Do with Sex
Note: Contains nudity and sexual references. No director in the history of cinema explored erotic themes, sensuality and the power of desire quite like Walerian Borowczyk (1923 – 2006). He was a master filmmaker, a major figure in surrealist cinema, and since his death his work and reputation have been revived and reappraised. Having studied […]
The Playfully Intimate Nude Photographs of Andi Galdi Vinko
Note: Contains nudity and sexual references. Andi Galdi Vinko is a Hungarian portrait and still life photographer known for her bright and playful compositions. Featured here is “Glittercum,” a series of mischievous photos produced by Galdi Vinko and some of her makeup artist and hairstylist friends. Exploring the idea of enjoying feminine nudity without it […]
In Sickness and Beauty: The Photography of Evelyn Bencicova
In haunting, theatrical compositions, photographer Evelyn Bencicova splices the beauty of vulnerability with the terror of illness and confinement. Recurring throughout her works are nude figures that crawl and cling together in empty, hospital-like rooms, their smooth, pallid skin evoking both a sensual euphoria and the fever of near-death. Sometimes the bodies arrange themselves into […]
Distorted Beauty And Supernatural Fantasy in Alva Bernadine’s “Succubus”
Note: Contains nudity and sexual references. Alva Bernadine is a British photographer known for his creative and intriguingly bizarre nude portraits. The series featured here, entitled “Succubus,” draws on the legend of the medieval she-demon of the same name, depicting uncanny female figures; duplicated and conjoined at the waist, they strike provocative poses with their […]