Fetish! The word probably conjures up erotic connotations in most peoples' heads. Let's look at the word Fetish and find out what it really means.

Fetish = Object

A fetish is an object which when viewed, smelled, felt or imagined causes that person to experience a higher level of emotional fervour, with an altered state of consciousness.

Not only can it be related to sexuality but also to other areas such as religious, magic or patriotic as well.

A religious symbol such as a crucifix can be a fetish for someone wishing to raise their level of religious fervour.

A magic symbol such as an amulet can be a fetish for someone wishing to focus their powers at a higher level.

A patriotic symbol such as a flag may also act as a fetish in order to enhance the feeling of patriotism, giving an altered state of mind as men move in to do battle and potentially lose their lives or end lives of others.


One of the joys of being a Gallery Director at dA is being involved with a group of people running with great ideas.

One of the great ideas was for Gallery Directors to 'swap' Galleries and then write an article about that particular Gallery. I was 'swapped' with ^opioid's Fetish Portraits Gallery. Fetish is an area I have been interested in for many years, as objects of fetish play a major role in all our lives and can have an immense impact on the quality of our emotional wellbeing.

Sexuality and objects of sexual fetish are the ones with which most people seem to readily identify and they are certainly not all in Fetish Portraits. A quick peep around dA will uncover many examples of objects of fetish being featured from Traditional Art> Paintings> People to Photography > Urban & Rural > Country Life

This watercolour has several items which could be classed as a fetish...belt, high heel shoes, rope, gag, panties perhaps even the stool may be a fetish here.


Then we move all the way across to 'Country Life' and we find something that is most certainly classed as a fetish by many...leads, rope and whips.




Portrait A likeness of a person especially of the face.





Fetish Portrait Gallery


Now that we know what a fetish and a portrait is, it is time to wander through the Fetish Portrait Gallery and look at portraits of people displaying the fetish of a particular type. They are wide and diverse and sometimes quite curious.

Leather, rope, chains, rubber, costumes, gags, blindfolds, collars, cuffs, corsets, lingerie, whips and much much more play a major role in this Gallery.

One very important thing to know about the Fetish Portrait Gallery, the content is not pornographic but as much of the fetish is generally related to a sexual activity in nature such as bondage, all work uploaded into that particular gallery will automatically be marked as mature. So even if it is a simple portrait of a lady with a gag, or a man wearing a pair of jeans which may seem quite inoffensive, it will automatically be flagged as mature.









Amongst a host of other things, a top quality man's business suite and brogues does it for me...



As no suits seem to be featured in fetish that I can find, this one works for me!

What's yours?