It was fascinating to hear from the many women we portrayed in our book Orgasm about their sexual lives which varied a lot. For example, Nirvano talked about how including water into her erotic life gives her a feeling of protection: “I have had many experiences in water or under waterfalls and I love surfing …
Read morePhotographer’s Journey: How water makes you feel safe
For our book Orgasm we interviewed Dragonfly who talked about her pleasurable experience with shower heads: “Detachable shower heads are just fun if you want to clean everything. One day I showered to clean THAT thing and I was like ‘oh wow!’. So that’s why I took a lot of long showers. To which my mother …
Read morePhotographer’s Journey: Getting to know your sexuality while having fun with shower heads
An excerpt from the interview with Solveig from my book Orgasm: “I remember that when I had my first orgasm, I was 15 years old, and I was in a summer camp which had big army-like tents with beds inside. The girls had a tent, and the boys had a tent. It was dark outside, …
Read morePhotographer’s Journey: Having the first orgasm in summer camp
The women I work with have so many definitions of eroticism and the role of an orgasm. Each one of those definitions adds insight to the powerful aspects of sexuality in a woman’s life. One woman we interviewed, Gudrun, said: “For me, orgasms can be very different. Sometimes they are gentle like a wave in …
Read morePhotographer’s Journey: The many different definitions of eroticism and pleasure
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 …
Read morePhotographer’s journey: Changing my photographic style for Maria Beatty
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 …
Read morePhotographer’s journey: Discovering and exploring my sexuality for the first time
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 …
Read morePhotographer’s journey: The dangerous road to knowing yourself