City of the Broken Dolls [Paperback]

Romain Slocombe (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Velvet Series | Publication Date: March 1997

Tokyo metropolis. Both in hospital rooms and on the neon streets, beautiful young Japanese girls are photographed in plastercasts and bandages, victims of unknown traumas. These are the "broken dolls" of Romain Slocombe's Tokyo, a city seething with undercurrents of violent fantasy, fetishism and bondage. City of the Broken Dolls is a provocative photographic document of the girls whose bodies bear mute witness to Tokyo's futuristic, erotic interface of sex and technology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Creation Books (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 187159281X
• ISBN-13: 978-1871592818
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,797,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Aesthetics of Injury, April 22, 2001

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: City of the Broken Dolls (Paperback)

I received this volume as a gift, given by a friend who knows my interest in forensic and fetish photography. The subtitle is `A Medical Art Diary 1993-1996,' but it is actually a difficult book to classify. It is composed of 100 plates, most of which are of bandaged women in various stages of mild undress. They are either wandering around Tokyo, in hospital rooms, or at home. There are some additional contextual shots of scenes in the city without the obligatory bandaged woman.

I am tempted to leave it at that. There is no doubt that this is fetish photography. The liner notes write of Slocomb's vision of Tokyo as `a city seething with undercurrents of violent fantasy, fetishism and bondage.' What gives me a problem is that Slocombe's images lack the kind of intensity that I would expect in this kind of photography. If anything, the bandaging de-sexualizes the women, unlike true bondage, which over-emphasizes sexuality.

The printing style emphasizes this difference. All but the cover are in black and white, and are a bit soft in tone and focus. Composition is very offhand and snapshot-like. The overall effect is almost ethereal and bloodless. It's as is we are living in a dream, but one that lacks a story line. I find myself intellectually understanding the implications of the photographs, but totally lacking any visceral reaction.

If I were to attack the same problems, I know I would do it differently. I would strive for some element (other than the mere presence of bandaged women) to focus the viewer and provide continuity over the range of images. Slocombe's choices are interesting, but I do not find them compelling

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Japanese Sculpture!, November 7, 2001

By 

Mr. T. J. Bacon "TJB" (London UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: City of the Broken Dolls (Paperback)

This is fetish photography. However, its not in the style of the excellent 'Generation Fetish,' but rather different. It presents bondage images of female Japanese women injured (in some cases from real events such as Motorcycle acidents - others are studio recreations). The idea of bondage comes from the medical bonds that have been placed upon the subjects - Should situations that are intended to heal become a sexual thing? The bandages and casts, that in the black and white photography vividly stand out as symbolic white bonds - allow one to explore where the boundries of fetish excess lie. None of the imagery is gratuitous but does raise the question of guilt and feminists may argue that that it is the optiomy of the 'male gaze.' Eitherway the product confronts the audience and questions the moral boundry of sexual arrousal - Whether you enjoy it or not this is fantastic!