Photographer’s journey: Changing my photographic style for Maria Beatty

Maria Beatty, a filmmaker who lived on the 5th floor of the Chelsea Hotel, was among the first women to agree to be in my book Erotic Lives of Women. As a hotel lobby friend she trusted me, so she invited us (co-editor Marion and I) to her room to shoot her and a partner’s …

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Photographer’s journey: Discovering and exploring my sexuality for the first time

As a child I stood in the hall outside the open door of my parents’ bedroom listening to the sound of my father’s breathing. He couldn’t sleep. My mother said I mustn’t disturb him as he was recovering from a heart attack and was weak from his World War II injuries. He was in his …

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Photographer’s journey: The dangerous road to knowing yourself

Through book projects I’ve discovered over and over how life affirming sexual pleasure is. I was obliged to care for my parents at an early age and this interfered with my personal space, which is why I still offer immediacy easily to people as I think I will gain insight and connection with them. Sometimes …

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Photographer’s journey: The healing power of photography

Since my first published photograph of a woman with a wedding dress ripped off at the waist, standing over a huge cactus, was published in the Village Voice, I’ve often chosen to explore taboos. Over the years the projects went deeper into the chasm of sexual identity. Photography like radiation is dangerous and uncanny but …

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