Customer Reviews

Sexual Magic: the S/M Photographs

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In "Sexual Magic, The SM Photographs," photographer, Michael
Rosen, presents a unique view into the world of sadomasochism. This
book was first published over 10 years ago, and since that time we
have come to see more and more images of "fetish" and
"kink" bleeding into the mainstream media. However, these
are not posed photos of supermodels in expensive fetish attire. These
are real players "in action." Soft focus and graininess
gives movement to these action images. The photographs are alive.
The whips are not frozen in space. They are flashing blurs. Faces
reveal the movement of emotion: pain, joy, concentration, intense
sexual arousal. Besides the raw beauty of these images, what makes
this book especially valuable for the uninitiated viewer is the
first-person thoughts of its subjects. We learn from the pictures and
the players' words what S/M is really about for each individual. This
book is a classic for anyone interested in the range of human sexual
expression.

It's surprising how less shocking this book has become since it was first published in 1986, but then again, SM has come out of the closet a lot in the last 14 years. Rosen was purposefully working with moving subjects and focus when he produced this first collection, so you get fragments of crisp view intermixed with soft focus. The photos are all black and white, shot live during "play" sessions of real-life BDSM practitioners, most of whom are from the SF/Bay Area. Comments, interviews and poetry from the subjects compliments the visuals.

This book isn't porn, it's almost an ethnographic study of people engaged in radical sexuality. If you are looking for a glossy wet dream of fantasy girls in leather then this isn't the book you want, but if you wish you could be in the middle of a real S/M scene with real players here it is. Rosen's artistry captures the passion and energy of the moment by using a journalistic soft focus and an amazing sense of what is most important to the participants involved. These are not models posing for the camera, they are players who have allowed Mr. Rosen (and by extension us) a privileged glimpse inside their most personal fantasies.

Michael Rosen does NOT make "pretty" pictures, though is images are exquisitely beautiful. His work isn't "erotic" in the mainstream sense, despite having spent nearly 30 years photographing sexuality. His images don't attempt to be "sensual" and definitely not "sexy," answering to a more specific, perhaps even higher calling. His stark, unadorned black and white images indulge in none of the technical or conceptual pretense that most viewers want/need to reconcile their attraction to nudity and sexuality in art. Rosen eschews the common vocabulary of erotic art -- soft focus, digital enhancement, pictorial stagecraft, cyber-gothic symbolism, et.al. - which has little or no place in his vision, serving only as buffers and cushions between us and the meaning driving his work...the kind of protection from the real that Rosen has no interest in.

Though his photographs are often dismissed as "porn" by the easily upset, Rosen could actually never exist in the world of mainstream commercial pornography, which is basically advertising carried to it's natural extreme. It's about selling a fantasy...the idea that one's frowsy next door neighbor could turn out to be the "Horny Housewife" on her way over to borrow a cup of sugar. Rosen's world is no fantasy; in fact the sheer reality of his images is what puts many viewers off. In a world where more and more of us are coming to believe that sexuality is only for the beautiful few, Rosen's scenes of real people being so unashamedly sexual with one another can look positively alien. Rosen's subjects are normal people that any of us could know - what makes them extraordinary is the manner in which they gain access to their own desires and pleasures, and the fact that they're brave enough to entrust that part of themselves to Rosen and his camera, almost always with striking and harshly beautiful results. His work isn't for everyone, but to those who can find their way into his intimate, passionately honest otherworld, Rosen is a very special artist - perhaps one of a kind.

Originally published in 1986, "Sexual Magic: the S/M Photographs" takes us on a fast-paced but thoughtful journey through the many worlds of BDSM "play." We see men with men, women with women, men and women dominating and being dominated. Rosen's journalistic approach gives the images an intensity and resonance that the work of more "famous" erotic photographers can't even touch. Rosen includes eloquent, even spiritual written passages contributed by his subjects that reveal even more of what S/M is truly about. Most amazing is Rosen's gift for capturing the moment when his subjects totally immerse in the worlds their words describe. Bodies arched and tensed with sensation, faces etched in anticipation, release and even trust. The true beauty of Rosen's photographs is in the way his subjects give so openly - to each other, to Rosen and to us if we're willing to accept and understand the nature of their gift.

Michael Rosen's "Sexual Magic" is a lyrical, artistic, taboo breaking study of the San Francisco sexual underground and the real people he meets on his journey. These aren't Kodak vacation snapshots. Rosen's impressionist images are grainy, soft and contrasty. They are images filled with movement, as if he took serveral moments in time and combined them all into a single image.

These techniques move us past our natural curiousity and obsession with surface reality, fantasy models and exotic gear to capture and reveal the heart and soul of radical sexuality. In picture after picture, Rosen digs beneath the surface and captures faces, relationships and shared moments of fun, outrage, intensity and love. So whips become blurs of energy shooting through the frame. And passionate faces vibrate and shimmer.

Rosen breaks ground in other ways. He not only presents real people as sexual icons, he mirrors the real world by including a broad range of sexual orientations and sexual styles in his work. And by combining the photographs with text taken from interviews he did with the photo subjects, Rosen humanizes them while letting them speak for themselves about their lives and their desires.

If what you're really looking for is commercial porn, like Greg, pass this book by. But if you're looking to be touched, emotionally and intellectually (to name just two......), if you'd like to learn why Rosen's "S/M photographs" are sexual magic, you'll find this an engaging, challenging and stimulating book.

If I could send it back I would. It was totally opposite my expectations. The soft bound book is filled with many grainy black and white prints, often out of focus and poorly lighted. The content of the photos certainly deals with S&M, but if I were a new comer or someone looking for some "sexual magic" I believe I would be turned off.

The text does a decent job of explaining the concepts, but I am afraid the photos do in whatever good the author was trying to do.

Sorry, but the book does not work. Anyone want a used copy?