A fetish photographer is a photographer who takes photographs of people in fetishistic situations, such as in bondage, or wearing rubber or leather clothing. More extreme fetish photography depicts paraphiliac acts such as urination, enemas, or SM activities.
A bondage photographer is a fetish photographer specialising in depictions of people in bondage.
Depending on your point of view, fetish photography can be fine art, erotica, pornography or perhaps a combination of these.
Once only published in bondage magazines, fetishistic photography is now also published as "art books". The publisher Taschen has been a prominent force in getting fetishistic imagery accepted into the mainstream. Bondage and fetish imagery has also made its way into mainstream pornographic magazines.
The pioneering fetish photographer was arguably John Willie, who published a famous fetishistic magazine, "Bizarre" from 1946 to 1959.
Photographers whose work has involved fetishistic elements:
- Kristina Vassilieva
- Nobuyoshi Araki
- Elmer Batters
- Barbara Behr (also ran bondage publisher House of Milan)
- Phil Carson
- Bob Carlos Clarke
- Russell Coleman
- Emma Delves-Broughton
- Steve Diet Goedde
- Dogstar Photography
- Dirk Hooper
- Richard Kern
- Irving Klaw
- Doris Kloster
- Eric Kroll
- Edward Lee
- Dave Naz
- Timothy Hughes
- Helmut Newton
- Barbara Nitke
- Suze Randall
- Ian Rath
- Michele Serchuk
- Roy Stuart
- Viv Thomas
- Eric Tragedy
- John Willie