The following is the first of a series of interviews launched for Fetish Portraiture photography week in Project Educate 2008.

*ian-x is prolific and innovative with his shoots, working with a wide range of models and being so generous as to post many photos from each set for our viewing pleasure. I remember running across his work during my first weeks as gallery director for fetish portraiture and just being blown away.

Basics and Background

Name and location?
Ian X.
Boston, MA
(Though as I write this, I am in Dublin; I was born in New Hampshire; and I got my start as a photographer during University in Scotland and England.)

How long have you been practicing photography?
Now that I think of it, I had a photo in a local library art contest when I was a kid. It was of the Badlands out west, from a trip when I was 5 or 6. I don't believe I placed in any category, even one made up so every kid got an honorable mention.

I did a little black and white darkroom photography when I took two semesters of photography classes in high school. I don't think I remember anything I learned, outside of some "rules" of composition.

It all really started on New Years Day 2001, when I started taking photos of my then-girlfriend. To be honest, the early photos were no better than the ones from age 6, or from high school, but that's the event that started me on this current path, so I think of it as when it all started. Appropriately, it's when my subject became "strange but beautiful girls".

Do you have any formal training in the arts?
Just that couple of elective art classes in high school. My training has been trial and error, learning as I go. It means I pick up one piece of vocabulary at a time. I hope it means it's interesting to watch my work evolve. I know it's the one thing that makes me insecure as an artist-- but I can't imagine learning from someone, in a formal setting, at this point.

What cameras are your personal must-haves on a shoot?
Since about 2002, I have worked with the same (one) camera and lens for all of my work. I shoot with a Canon EOS 10D, with a Canon 28-135mm (USM/IS) lens, which is a pretty versatile rig really.

When it was new, and rather impressive, I noticed that it helped, but I still felt that the camera was the last thing that mattered towards a good photograph. Now that it's old, its sort of the flip side. It's like buying very nice canvas, or having a Stradivarius, versus painting on whatever is handy. You have to know what to do with it, and if you do your job right, people shouldn't really notice, but maybe it helps a little with that last 1% of quality.

Still, it's time to enter the present, so this summer I'm looking at the EOS XSi (450D).

How did you come to embrace the genres you prefer to work in?

To be honest, I got my start in a pretty embarrassing way, but I can't imagine being anywhere but where that got me.

When I was in college, my girlfriend and I started making naughty pictures of her. The people we met online doing that had varying ideas of the purpose of erotica, porn, or art, but early on I realized (inspired by a few of them) that this became a lot more fulfilling and interesting if we tried to make each image a work of art, tried to say something, but still kept an eye on "beautiful"... and indeed, on "sexy".

Before long, I was working with other models (first, my best friend, then professionals I found online, then first-time models who found me by word of mouth) and my range and skill was broadening. It's been a gradual evolution since then, but I think you can still see the same ideas. Contrast, both conceptual and visual, is a big one. Beauty and sexiness is just huge in my work-- but always with that something out of place, I think, to make it interesting.

Art and sexuality

What initially drew you to fetish-related subject in art?
I think, in my art, I like to please the eye, and upset the conscience a bit. There are a lot of opportunities to do that when your subject is, roughly speaking, naked girls of the dark-alternative persuasion. More so when, sometimes, you directly touch on fetish themes.

A number of our first sets were about things that mattered to us (and still interest me). Yes, among those things, there were touching D/s photographs taken back then, and our studio had as many bondage toys as victorian nightdresses. This is who I am, reflected in what I see.

How do you personally define fetish fine art versus pornographic imagery? How do you feel about the controversy overlaid on this style of photography?
I see this as two questions. First, about the difference between erotic art and pornography. Second, the difference between fetish photography and its vanilla counterparts.

I'm sure the subject of pornography versus art has been discussed more illuminatingly, and more clearly, than I will manage in this interview. Still, it's worth laying out the principles. Pornography is meant to arouse, to titillate, and probably to get someone off in the end. Art can arouse, titillate, and touch on the same subjects-- but it's role is not merely to do so. There is something being said, whether a hidden message of conscience, a juxtaposition, an emotional theme, or an unexpected true intimacy.

I take my own work to pass this test, and some of the others one could apply, reasonably well. As I frame some of my images, and set the stage, I do indeed think "will this be sexy"... but I never start and stop at that question. I think when people see work like mine (and the other people being interviewed this week) they tend to have an intangible sense that we might be near the line, but something is going on beyond what motivates pornography.

As for what separates fetish photography, be it art or pornography, from other images... I think the easiest answer is that it touch on some recognizable sexual fetish. This could be somewhere in the alphabet soup of BDSM; other traditional fetishes like smoking, trampling, or age-play; or newer territory like looners, furries, and so forth.

On the other hand, not all of my fetish photography, or all of the photos I recognize as fetish photography, are so obvious. There's no prop needed to lock down the concept, for instance, of submission. Sexualizing (or at least sensualizing) an unusual situation can also be fetish photography. My one DD was of a beautiful girl apparently rather enjoying drinking from a champagne bottle. Is that photo Fetish because it was dark, or because of her incongruous (and clearly sexual) reaction, or perhaps because it could be sexy without being, in any way, an image of sex.

Do you find influence from other mediums?
More than anything, my inspiration is the personality of the model, or to a lesser degree, to a persona or character that she presents, and from ideas that pop up in the moment as we are working.

I think the influence that drives those ideas comes from over the place. Early on, it was "amateur girl" websites, and their photographers, many of whom outgrew the genre as soon as they entered it. (I can't say I draw a lot of inspiration from the other kind.) Lately, it comes from photographers, in various genres, who I watch here on DeviantArt. I have a very randomizes memory-- I'm good at trivia, but not memorization-- and as a result I pluck ideas from disparate places.

In terms of other media, I get inspiration from movies, from comic books, from things I saw but can't remember where, and from my hobby, live-action roleplaying. I've done series based on stories I have told elsewhere, in live-action and tabletop roleplaying, for instance.

What kind of in-camera manipulations do you perform to glam up your portraits?
IFor me, the manipulation happens after the shoot, far more than during. Before I was a photographer, I was a "Photoshop kid". My first art was abstract digital manipulations, created back in high school. (You can find some of these images in my gallery.)

For that reason, my main technique involves getting a nice broad histogram, to maximize the information in the photo. Rather than shooting for the exposure and look I want, I get an image that I can work with, and finalize those things in post.

What suggestions would you give other photographers about harnessing light to create a desired mood in their imagery?
Contrast, especially in terms of dark shadows and glimmering highlights: I think in Fetish photography, there's a real temptation to overuse this. The only trick is to push just a bit past what is expected, without going so far that it isn't believable, or beyond being able to see clearly. Yes, the latex should be black and shiny, but if the curves of light on skin aren't subtle, the image loses its human element.

If you mean harnessing light more generally, as in, well... photography? I have always believed that the best photograph is in some way true. The subject has to really (to a degree) feel what you're trying to express, and the photographer has (to a degree) to truly see it.

Words of wisdom

What advice do you have for beginning photographers?
Above all, take a lot of photos, and finish them. Practice, practice, practice. The great thing is, even practice is art-- or maybe, making more art is still practice. In other words, find the time to do a lot of work. Let yourself be your teacher, through experience.

What advice would you give to professional photographers in a rut?
Never let your art leave the place where your creative impulse is the most important driver. If it begins to feel like work, something is wrong. If it gets that point, think about what you love, and about what your images are really supposed to link, and bring those things back into your work.

What advice would you, at present, give yourself 5 years ago if you could reach back in time?
Last summer, I decided to take my career in some new directions. I began to plan my first art show, and to find commercial work. I definitely wish that I had worked on those things sooner, and it turned out to be a lot easier than I thought, when I set my mind to it. So I suppose I'd tell 2003 Ian that he should start working on those things, instead of waiting until 2007.

What do you hope people find in your art? Or, what do you hope they definitely don't find in it?
My answer is really one of opposites. Contrast keeps coming back as a theme, doesn't it?

Some artists hope that people will see the same things they themselves do, in each image. Others hope that the audience will find something new that was never intended. I'm greedy enough, I suppose, to hope for both.

I hope that people will find beauty in my art. In part, this means I hope they will feel I successfully captured the beauty of my models. Further, I hope they can see the beauty of the strange situations I often put them in.

On the other hand, I hope people won't see only the beauty, the attractiveness, and the sensuality. I'm not just a glamour photographer, at least by intentions.

What inspires you most? How do you translate that to your fetish (or nude, or expressive, or other types of glamorous portrait) photography?
By education and inclination, I'm a Philosopher. (I have a couple of degrees in it.) That, by definition, means that I love knowledge, for its own sake. So I certainly love to learn, and I think that drives me. I want to show people something they haven't seen before, and in so doing, be the first to see it.

In life, I am also driven by something that is either at the opposite end of the spectrum of values, or perhaps right next to knowledge. I think "inspired by beauty" is a fine turn of phrase to pick out what I feel. I'm a sucker for a pretty girl. I can remember a beautiful image long after I forget what it looks like.

I also tend to look into the dark a lot, enough to realize you can't see it without a little light.

I think together those three things explain the images I create.


Ego

Who is your favorite deviantART photographer and why?
The one name that comes to mind instantly is Mehmet Turgut ([link]). I hadn't heard of him before joining DA, and I can't imagine how I missed him. Every image he creates should win photo of the day everywhere that it's available. His work is striking, with fantastic lightness, sombre shadows, and unbelievable expression. He shows us the unattainably beautiful, next to the strange and wizened.

What is your favorite image of your own, so far? Why?
It's a photograph of the sublime Ayame, in an ongoing series-of-series called "Crow Girls: Huginn and Muninn". The particular image I often call "Witch".



I love this image for all of the reasons you might suspect, and one that you might not.

First, it captures Ayame's real beauty perhaps better than the thousands of other photos I have taken of her. (I suppose because the shadows allow your mind to see what my camera cannot.)

Next, it has wonderful contrast. The dark and the light are battling one another, but from the outside it looks like more of a dance than a war.

Third, there's a very real sense of a frozen moment-- that I simply captured a mysterious event, but only for an instant. The unknown purpose of the objects in her hands, and the look in her eye, create that feeling for me.

Finally, there's the simple fact that I can say these things about my own image. I'm generally not quite so confident. I think in this case, it is because I am somewhat detached-- I look at the image, and can't quite believe I created it. On a few occasions, I've remarked, "I don't know what movie that is the poster for, but I want to see it."

Is fetish a lifestyle for you or an expressive art form? Why?
Both, of course. In fact, how can you live something without expressing it? Or, certainly, how can you express something without living it to a degree?

Some of my favorite fetish images, by myself and others, are the ones where the Truth of the image, the intimicy into the character of the subject, matters far more than the sexuality, the attractiveness, of the image.

Favorite ice cream flavor?
I can virtually never chose favorites, at anything. This is such a subject. The best I could manage would be a list, which perhaps tells as much about me:

Oatmeal Cookie Chunk
Chocolate Fudge brownie
Spumoni
El Diablo (dark chocolate, cinnamon, and spice)
Pistachio
Mint Chocolate Chip

Least favorite to eat off of a member of the opposite sex: Anything with nuts.

If you could be any other person, who would it be and why?
A better version of myself. I'll leave the improvements I'd make as an exercise to the reader-- or, really, as a secret.

Do you have your own fetish or infatuation, and if so does it influence your concept brainstorming?
I think it may be clear in my photography, though I could be wrong. Let's say I have a strong interest in power exchanges.

Anything else you'd like to say?
Just to apologize for saying so much already. I do tend to go on, don't I?



#thevaginamafia is the dAmn headquarters for fetish portraiture week. Be sure to drop by this week to meet the artists interviewed in this series, myself, and many other photographers of varied types here on deviantART!