In Brave: Men and Fetish a variety of artists presents their individual ideas of the topic. The different approaches in this book are all as unique as the fetishes themselves.
In BRAVE: MEN AND FETISH a variety of artist presents their individual ideas of the topic. The different approaches in this book are all as unique as the fetishes themselves. In the introduction to this book of extremely high quality photographs Ulli Richter states 'Fetish titillates our senses and stimulates sexual encounters but fetish is so much more - it is a lifestyle, a well-established culture and a way for people on the margins of an increasingly morally corrupt society to meet and interact within a parallel world they have all created.....[fetish] is the opportunity to let go or be handed full control over someone that makes play in a fetish context so unique. Anyone who has ever felt, what it means to be turned on to the brink of oblivion and submit or be allowed to dominate, will acknowledge this as a fully-fledged form of spirituality.'
Richter thus puts a sociologic slant on this volume of photographs, a stance that is valid and informative. The book itself is a series of black and white, color and duotone photographs of various costumes (extreme to simple) of the leather set, forms of bondage and discipline, fantasies acted out by costumed models by a series of photographs by 33 photographers. In keeping the book meaningful rather than simply 'sensational', each of the photographers makes a statement about his perception of the world of fetish. The photographs vary from brilliant portraits of men in 'costume of fetish' to scenes of acts of fetishism that may seem lurid to some, but that are artistically excellent and worthy of the attention not only of those who act out fetishes, but for those who have fantasized about them, and for the even larger audience who is uninformed of the cult that this book addresses. There is a philosophical statement made here that deserves the attention of scholars.
