I could start a blog based purely on showing terrible representations of kink and fetish in celebrity culture. The commonest scenario is describing any celebrity dress with a hint of straps, leather or latex as a dominatrix outfit (for example this recent article). That’s just journalists being lazy and cliched, but now and again you get cases where the celebrities and artists have been the ones to make a hash of things. The recent photoshoot for V magazine, featuring Katy Perry and Madonna, is a great example of this.
They’re obviously going for a retro-fetish look, probably inspired by Bettie Page, but they don’t have a fraction of the presence she brought to her shots. Somebody should explain to them that fetish and kink are all about powerful desires and sexual attraction. And, as with all powerful feelings, they can risk invoking aspects of darkness, danger, yearning and compulsion. There’s none of that in these shots. Just two women wearing silly outfits and exhibiting no chemistry together. Although is narcissism a fetish? If it is, then they could at least have one fetishistic element covered.
It’s so flat, but at least the boots are lovely. I think I’m experiencing a little bit of boot envy over here.
I can’t help but think that what little life this photo may have had (if any) was removed during the excessive “flawless” editing/airbrushing that took place after the fact. And I do enjoy some fashion-type photos.
I’m glad that you’re back! I really missed your posts.
No, scratch that. There couldn’t have been much life in this picture to begin with. The expressionless doll faces are just getting to me. 😛
Consider it scratched :). They certainly seem more interested in the camera and themselves than they do in each other, which is kind of a problem for a kinky D/s scene.
-paltego
I’ve also been known to enjoy some fashion photographs (not to mention a nice pair of boots 🙂 ). They don’t often capture a good sense of chemistry between the models, but they can be striking, or elegant or just unusual enough to be visually interesting. These have certainly been well worked over in photoshop after the fact, but I don’t get the feeling they had much to start with beforehand. There’s no real sense of ‘presence’ there to my mind.
And thanks for the welcome back! That’s a sweet thing to say, and I can only hope you enjoy whatever random things come from my brain and keyboard in the forthcoming posts.
-paltego