Adults in
Wonderland
Photographs and text by Grace Lau
Copyright 1997, 120 pages, $29.99 (may be available for much
less)
Serpent's Tail (England and U.S.A.)
ISBN 1-85242-552-0 (softcover)
Capsule:
A 15-year retrospective of Englishwoman Grace Lau's photography --
depicting mostly men as nudes, men involved in crossdressing,
bondage and sadomasochism (s/m); and men in sexually charged
scenes with women wielding power. More than photography for its
own sake, Lau's work has ties to women's eroticism and sexual
liberation. Her photography can at various times be artistic,
documentary, and/or sexually arousing -- and is backed by
excellent writing about her motives and feelings.
Full review:
Grace Lau first saw nude male photographs in cellophane-wrapped gay men's magazines in porno shops. Later she turned the tables by tightly wrapping real men's buns in cellophane and photographing them.
Grace Lau began her trip through the English sexual Wonderland in 1980, coming from an academic and feminist orientation. Interested in women's eroticism as expressed in photography and the media, she found instead an unimaginative, male-dominated pornography industry featuring images of women. As a photographer, she struck out to go beyond those boundaries.
Lau writes: "What did women want? Might they want explicit pornography [of men]? ... once I started to consider male nudes as photo subjects, I was sharply aware of the effects of strict upbringing in my youth. Paradoxically, my inhibition actually led to an urgent curiosity to investigate lust and libido, using photography as a medium -- perhaps even as a spatial protection to start with."
She began by photographing mostly male bodybuilders: " ... I added discreet props to enhance my bodybuilders' poses such as ropes and chains to suggest bondage fantasies (my own)."
Later she explored and photographed crossdressing men, men and women in fetish attire, sexual play between men and women, mannequins, bondage and sadomasochism (where women hold power over men), male and female strippers, and finally, nude photography classes. Some of Lau's photographs of heavy bondage and the consensual infliction of pain will be eye-openers for those unfamiliar with the scene.
Always interested in exposing her work to the public eye (and especially to women), she found that a show of her work brought in many more male viewers than female -- especially because of the bondage and s/m component.
Lau became a participant in some of the scenes she photographed, somewhat unwittingly at first. She advertised herself as a photographer of fantasies and fetishism and found mostly male crossdressers as customers. They needed her help in dressing as women, and many had to be tightly tied up. But she drew the line there, and guessed that the men had their orgasms "Perhaps later at home." Later, becoming a trusted visitor at an s/m club, she photographed a female-dominated leather world so intense that the outside world seemed artificial. "I began to move in closer and closer. At times I felt as if I was almost part of the act ... I even felt drawn to join in some of the action and adopted the mistress masquerade. But I felt more comfortable with my camera than a cane, and the power of wielding my camera to stimulate such uninhibited action was my own power-trip ...."
To move away from the Lau story and look at her photography: her mostly black and white photos are technically excellent. They range from early artistic male nudes and semi-nudes, to a documentary style (s/m scenes in progress, or a man in the various stages of dressing as a woman), to staged situations (a buff man undresses under the cool, appraising view of a seated woman). Most photos are posed, and that is a kind of protection for Lau. She's given the power to arrange, illuminate and set the tone. Her best photography, however, is more spontaneous -- and better at depicting the personality of her subject. A representative photo of that genre is below.
Photo © Copyright Grace Lau
In the final estimation, Grace Lau's work has the effect of opening sexuality and sexual play to public view, making it more acceptable and less embarrassing -- or open to media sensationalism.
Do women need (or want) to be as "out there" with their sexual desires as men? It's obvious that some women (like Lau) do. Her book encourages other similar women to blaze their own unique erotic paths -- whether they be edged with lace or leather.
Ratings (five stars = highest rating)
Photography ****
Text *****
Book design and printing *****
(Reviewer: Valory Gravois) (Copyright © 2000 by Alchemist/Light Publishing)
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