I stumbled upon Vee Speer's Bordello photos by accident at the local bookstore.
The series harks back to the old photos of Paris before WWII. The B&W tones are extremely soft and slightly blurry. Which gives them a dream like quality.
The nude studies are extremely beautiful, gentle and respectful. In style, the photos have a lot in common with Unwerth's Revenge. However Revenge was all camp, Bordello is elegant. The photos seem to mimic the POV of a potential patron. The viewer travels from the outside of a Madam's house to the entrance and then to the inner chambers. Men make a very rare appearance in the photos. When they are caught in frame, they remain rather remote. Which is the same position the viewer is in as well. The women flirt with the viewer, seduce and many times plainly ignore the viewer.
The series is also fantastic in that it showcases many models who are well outside the norms of Vogue fashion. Their bodies are voluptuous and not painfully thin. Many are much older than the teens that Vogue Et al. cynically exploit. Speers celebrates the models in their maturity and independence.
The photo shown above is from the series itself and courtesy of Vee Speer's Website. You can see samples of Bordello and her other photo projects HERE.Labels: art, books, erotica, photography, sex