Customer Reviews

The Transformations of Gwen Volume 1

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Eric Kroll has been called "King of the Fetish Photographers." And with good reason. His vision transcends girlie pictures. Kinkly, yes. Pornographic, almost. Art, certainly. Humor, that too.

Kroll creates a visual odyssey for "Gwen," a young woman whom he captures in a series of sexually provocative poses: Alone, with men, with other women.

This book is a step beyond his past photographic works ("Fetish Girls" and "Beauty Parade", with more storyline, more thematic fantasy.

Kroll is an explorer (with a camera) who will take you to the edge of your known world. Don't go if you are sexually cautious or have a bit of the prude in you. But if you appreciate eye candy, feast on!

With "Transformations of Gwen" Eric Kroll though of course using photography as media blends in with comic creators such as Michael Manning ("Spider Garden"), Eric Stanton and David Quinn ("Shadow and Light"). "Transformations..." is a work which erotic qualities are outstanding. There's really no need to go into technical details since Mr. Kroll has always been a master at this. What really makes this book great is the sexuality in it. This is real sex. The depictions of SM and fetishism are beautiful and it is easy to see why Mr. Kroll enjoys photographing Gwen. Besides being a beautiful woman she has the ability to make the situations very natural. There's no glossy mainstream pornmag in these photographs. Each of them would be suitable as a high quality print. A sure winner.

Eric Kroll's latest oeuvre with the divine Gwendoline is both an essential fetichist's delight, and a compelling work of literature as well. In this book, Kroll has enlarged and personalized his photography with written pieces, at once both compelling and revealing that thicken the plot of his universe and ours. This is a book that must be read. He risks much in resisting the perfectly seen and composed image in his pursuit of his "narratives". We are the winners. What a generous window on a world few of us will ever live or experience. The quote opening the book is by none other than William S. Burroughs. Kroll's book is the voyage of an intellect at work and should not be missed. There is a baroque world of fetichistic fascinations in each of us, whether we acknowledge it or not. Particularly in his foreword and postscript Kroll humbly lays down the risks he himself is taking in the risky pursuit of what he recognizes as his own fears, fantasies and, as he puts it, "edges". It is an essential Kroll work and opens a window to his intelligence and candour that he has heretofore protected behind his camera. The work is a revelation. May this be only the first of twenty, maybe thirty volumes of continuing narratives on Gwen.

If you know Eric Kroll's work you will need to buy "Transformation of Gwen". It is the next step - the next progression in Eric's photographic journey through the world of photo-erotica. His own "Pilgram's Progress" on his photographic odessy.

I have collected Erics work for 20 years - even have a rare copy of his first book "Sex Objects" Now comes Gwen - almost a graphic novel, documenting the life of his muse.

In some ways I see Eric's roots as documentary photographer and anthropolgist showing through here. And I like it. And I can't wait for the next installment.

John Running

Our coffee tables were never the same after the publication of the stunning Fetish Girls and its follow-up, Beauty Parade, both sadly unavailable here (although easily located around the web). Kroll's portraits of bondage and fetish activities are unique, haunting, excessive, hilarious and beautiful. His latest docudementary is filled with more of the same.

While Eric Kroll's previous works may have hinted at the sexual, in The Transformations of Gwen he openly explores the genre, especially as it is played out by participants that are kinkier than the norm. The centerpiece of the publication is Eric's real-life girlfriend and muse, Gwen. Across eight photo-narratives she engages with a variety of partners in beautifully explicit sexual play.

One of the most revealing elements in the book is not even a photograph but part of the postscript where Eric reveals a bit of himself and his motivation for the book:
"I think one of the reasons I photographed Gwen, my girlfriend, having sex with so many partners was to face my greatest fear - that my girlfriend would cheat on me ... So I photographed it. I controlled it. It happened repeatedly, right in front of me. I could judge her reaction. I could record her response ... I had visual proof.

In the end it didn't make any difference ... I knew there were moments when I'd see her kiss another man or run her fingers through a woman's hair and I'd feel myself get hard ... there were moments when I'd see her do the same thing and I'd feel a sharp pain of regret and sense of loss. It was my 'edge' play."

This book is not for the faint of heart, it is aggressively sexual, but if the stirrings of erotic adventure expertly photographed are what you are after, then this work is a must have.

As some reviewers may have stated Vol 2 is a much better book. the visuals in his one are slightly less captivating and composed. It gets a feeling of "lets get naked and shoot" at times.

Vol2 is a much more interesting and thought out execution of Kroll's work. Much more worth the price of admission.

As a serious collector of photography, I have long been a fan of Eric Kroll. His vision is erotic, exotic, sometimes bizarre, always provoking. His Gwen series is an exciting followup to his previous collections like Fetish Girls and Beauty Parade, in that here he approaches photography as sequential art, a visual approach that adds context and implied storylines to the titillating images. Kroll picks up where the art of John Willie and Eric Stanton left off, adding his photographic skills and eye for beauty, mixing in sex and eroticism, tossing in a dash of over-the-edge shock-you images. Maybe this book (and its sequel Transformations of Gwen Vol. 2) are not for the timid, but it's the cutting-edge fantasy that wet dreams are made of.