Tag: Bondage

Samir Abady’s Kink Series

The title of this BuzzFeed article is somewhat silly – 18 Kinky Pictures From The Gritty Underworld Of BDSM – but the photographs and the writing with them is both interesting and revealing. It’s only a ‘gritty underworld’ if your idea of BDSM consists of perfect models posing in polished fetish gear on a studio set. What these photographs show is how some kinky people explore BDSM in the real world. Ropes get knots in them, bodies aren’t perfect and you don’t need a dungeon space to get creatively kinky.

I particularly liked the story of Josh and Mistress Blunt. As a fan of mummification and breathplay myself, I can understand a little of the meditative effect it can have. The shots of them pre-session and in session (like the one below) are great.

The photographer is Samir Abady and you can the full series of 19 images in his set entitled ‘Kink’.

The places you’ll go

Writing about Kink’s Armory space last week got me thinking about all the different play spaces I’ve experienced over the years. If you’ve never visited a professional BDSM space, you might be surprised where they pop up. Old industrial buildings in the cheaper parts of town are certainly common, but they’re not the only option. For example, over the years I’ve experienced:

  • A big McMansion in a rich suburb. A large chunk of the second floor had been converted to the play space. It was odd to experience being bound and beaten while chinks in the window blinds gave me glimpses of people watering their lawns or kids playing in the street.
  • An ultra-modern loft style condo. I was late to arrive, as I spent the first 10 minutes convinced that the play space must be in the old brick warehouse across the street. That seemed so much more likely than the trendy and expensive condos.
  • The top floor of a downtown office block. It was an incredibly well equipped space, and it must have been a nightmare to get all the big heavy dungeon furniture up the lifts and stairs without arousing suspicion.
  • A townhouse in the heart of San Francisco. I was banned from visiting during the day, as it was thought my screams would disturb the dot com company next door.

Most spaces adopt the functional but cliched black / red color schemes for the walls and equipment, but there are a few happy exceptions. Troy Orleans in NYC has a beautiful establishment with natural light, clean white walls and a very well thought out use of space (see a shot here). Similarly, Lucy Khan in LA has a luxurious and well composed space that actually looks like an interior designer was involved (see a shot here). Personally, I always prefer to play somewhere that feels like a beautiful space to be in, rather than in a dungeon cliche.

This image is by Natasha Gornik and was featured on her tumblr. It doesn’t say so on the post, but I believe that’s Miss Troy Orleans again. I think it’s a nice example of an intense scene but with still a clean and beautiful aesthetic.

End of an era in SF

By strange coincidence, just after my previous post on Kink.com and their famous San Francisco studios, this article popped up in my news feed – End Of An Era: Kink.com To Stop Filming In Its Famous Porn Dungeon.

It seems that this change was triggered, in part at least, by a combination of falling revenue and the difficulty in maximizing use of the Armory building. Less people are buying porn and mainstream companies don’t like to share space with famous kinky porn studios. The new approach will be to keep just the kink.com offices in the Armory, making it easier to lease/repurpose the remaining space, and then spread the filming to other sets and studios. Given the high cost of San Francisco rent, that may mean directors building their own facilities in LA or Vegas.

I certainly wouldn’t hold kink.com up as an exemplar for femdom porn. Their shoots tend to play to a lot of the classic femdom stereotypes. High in leather, snarling and sneering. Low in emotional connection, sensuality and fun. They’ve also had allegations of workplace mistreatment. However, all that said, I am sad to hear they’re no longer going to be shooting at the armory. It always seemed amazing that a kink dedicated company could buy a run such a big and impressive property in one of the most expensive cities in America. I can remember when kinky material was obscure, hard to find and (frequently) cheaply shot. Now we have dedicated riggers and set designers putting together complex scenes and fiendish equipment in a huge army building in the middle of SF. For me that building was a physical embodiment of kinks transition from obscurity to mainstream success.

I hope their new approach will allow them to stay viable. If you like their stuff, then now would obviously be a good time to subscribe. Femdom is a lot lot more than humiliation, pain and fancy bondage, but there’s no reason those elements can’t also be some part of it, and kink.com often did a pretty good job on them

These two shots are of Claire Adams and EuroSex from the old Men in Pain channel.

Kinky Pigment

The two drawings below are by the artist Kinky Pigment or Knky Pgmnt (as the signature has it). You can see more on their tumblr here.

I only discovered this work recently, but I’m glad I did. The style and focus is interesting. I hesitate to say realistic, because some of the other drawings are quite extreme or surreal, but it does capture some of the sense of real kinky play. There are quite a few images featuring clips and zippers. I personally love playing with these in scenes, but it’s relatively rare to see them in kinky artwork.

Mister Elastic

Two things struck me when I spotted this image by Storax. Firstly, it’s obviously inspired by Rodzo. Secondly, bodies really don’t typically bend like that (outside of comics). The same thing could be said for a lot of Rodzo artwork, but it’s somehow more obvious when rendered more realistically.

Of course, one should never let realism get in the way of hot fetish artwork. If you like this then Storax’s tumblr has a lot of similar material, including a few more inspired by Rodzo. Giantess fans – a genre which lends itself to rendered images – should certainly check it out.

Always something new to learn

Female readers who find themselves in San Francisco or New York in January may be interested to check out the Forte Femme event. It’s run by Midori and is an intensive course over a weekend for dominant women. In the words of their site, it’s designed to offer a…

supportive environment exploring what it means to find and enjoy your power as a dominant femme.

I can’t speak to the course personally, as being neither dominant nor female, I’m not exactly the target audience. But I know Midori has been running course and events like this for years and she has an excellent reputation as a BDSM and kink expert.

This image by Morey Studio (posted to their tumblr here) feature Midori binding Dita Von Teese. It was shot in 2001.

Kitten with Claws

A final post on the cat theme – this time focusing on the claws. I’m surprised how rarely artificial claws pop-up in either erotica or play. In my years of play, I’ve maybe had one occasion where a domme pulled a pair of claws out. They’re also equally rare in femdom porn scenes. Which is odd, given they’re easy to use, visually striking and offer opportunities for a wide range of play. They’re not as dramatic as cracking a whip or swishing a cane, but CBT or impact play combined with big claws will certainly grab anyone’s attention. There’s nothing like a hard slap followed by a forceful scratch to get the blood pumping.

The pair below are particularly interesting when you see them in close-up. Nice craftsmanship, although the quality of the metalwork is probably the last thing on his mind.

This is obviously from the CBT and Ballbusting site.

Comfortable

I’m not sure if I should count this as femdom. Admittedly, there’s a (mostly) naked guy tied to a bed and a non-naked lady in control of the situation. Yet his position seems rather relaxing. Many people find light bondage comforting, and I’m pretty certain I’d be pretty comfortable with a lady in a fur coat draped over me. Is it femdom? Or just the best sleeping situation ever?

comfortingThis is from an Asian version of Venus in Furs.

Fakery

I generally like fake images that people create to scratch their particular fetishistic itch. It’s not that I find them hot – the wonky photoshop work usually is too distracting for me – but I like the idea of people meeting their needs and fantasies in a creative fashion. Some people draw, some write and some photoshop.

The image below popped up on a few different tumblrs recently, and caught my eye via because of the young lady. Books and glasses push certain buttons in me. The guy was obviously a later addition to the shot. He also seemed somewhat familiar from other images I’d seen. I tracked down another image with him again (albeit it rotated) and then, even more strangely, this tumblr. Somebody decided to insert the same bound guy into literally hundreds of different porn images. That shows a degree of focus and specialization that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.  I’d love to know the thinking behind it and where the bound man is originally from.

fake1

Femdom Image Page Updated

At the post titles suggests, I’ve refreshed my Femdom Image Page. I was amazed to discover it had been a year since I last touched it, so there were a fair number of dead or dormant sites on it. I’ve cleaned all those up and replaced them with new sites that are currently active. Here’s what’s new…

General Femdom

Dominant Focused

Submissive Focused

Artwork

Specific Activities or Domains

I’ll finish with an image from one of the new sites. This is from Labstrakt’s. It’s a little different to most of the other additions, as it features mainstream fashion and art shots with a femdom slant.

Michael Bailey Gates and Jane Moseley for Man About Town Magazine.This was originally shot by Michael Bailey Gates for Man About Town magazine. It features the photographer himself with Jane Moseley.