Very happy!

This is a large-format book of high quality photographic images showing (mostly) females attired in the style of clothing and accoutrements that many people find erotically stimulating. Many superb photographers are represented. As with most erotic practices the result will not be seen universally as erotic, and indeed may well have the opposite effect, even to the point of nausea. The photographs, in superbly rich colours, involve a lot of shiny rubber, and a goodly proportion involve BDSM apparatus such as ropes and instrument of chastisement. The models chosen to be thus adorned are uniformly stunning, and it cannot be denied that the rubberwear, scanty and tautly figure-hugging as it is, emphasises their extremely feminine shapes. For me, wearing shiny rubber headgear, usually completely enclosing the head apart from eyes and mouth, seems sinister, and detracting from the essentially feminine beauty of the female face, but I freely admit that it may be just such attributes which attract those who are susceptible to this fetish. That said, the book as a whole is so well conceived and produced that it is likely to have an attraction well beyond the fetishistic niches that are its principal target.

This is a book which will appeal to most anyone. Brilliant photography from a selection of top artists. I really enjoyed it.

48 photographers are represented in "Fetish", a survey of recent trends in determinedly decadent photos of women in vinyl, rubber or rope. Some, like Nobuyoshi Araki, show 2 photos, most get 4 photos and a few photogs get 6 pix, giving a fairly shallow sampling of each photographer. The range of work shown is also fairly narrow, but in this field, perhaps that's a benefit, particularly for newcomers. For example, there's nothing in "Fetish" to compare with Mapplethorpe's photo of a ... nailed and wired to a block of wood -- in fact there are very few photos involving males at all. So while the book deals with material that remains controversial and retains an illicit look, "Fetish" is a fairly safe first stride into the dark side. Reproduction quality is uneven but in the many cases where it is good, it is very good indeed. I REALLY want to hang out with Derek Ridgers...or Sandra Jensen. Really. I do. They must be much more interesting people than I am. And PLEASE could I hire a model like Mike McMillan's redhead with the blue rope. Gasp, what a picture.

I have no experience with erotic or fetish photography, so I cannot review this book from a learned perspective. But, as the old saw goes, I know what I like. And I liked this book.

The contents were a nice capture of shadow and light, a somber eye cast on what could have been alarming or lurid and making it instead something lovely. Certainly there was plenty here to titillate rather than elevate, but that's no reason to throw out the entire batch.