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The Transformations of Gwen
- by Eric Kroll (Photographer)
$16.95
ISBN 1561632643
available through
Amazon
Reviewed by Julian Robinson
(07/04/2001)
Who's Gwen? She's the next generation of BDSM: knowledgeable, playful, pierced, poised, and up for anything. Whether draped with spaghetti or spanked to a rosy glow, whether walking her boy dogs through the woods, mounting her man in a sling, or peeing on her stepmother, Gwen is having fun and she doesn't feel one iota of guilt or shame. Why should she?
And she's the muse behind master fetish photographer Eric Kroll's wildest work to date. He met her in 1996 when he was striving to create more explicit images, to break through the static art book stereotype. At the same time, Gwen was having adventures exploring her sexuality, adventures she didn't mind sharing with the camera. Kroll has shot more than a hundred sequences starring Gwen and her partners in crime. Here are the first eight in what's projected to be a continuing series. We can only hope!
Kroll's work pays homage to his fetish art forbears. "Sweet Gwen," as he calls her, reminds us of Sweet Gwendoline, the perpetually imperiled heroine of fifties illustrator/photographer/editor/publisher John Willie. Kroll edited Taschen's complete reprint of Willie's Bizarre magazine, a beacon of relief for isolated bondage enthusiasts of earlier generations. In that introduction, he writes:
"We are watching the seeds that John Willie planted over 50 years ago."
On NBM's site, he admits:
"I masturbated to early Irving Klaw published drawings done by Stanton, Willie, Billbrew, and Ward. I steal from everybody including the grand master comic artists. I want to grab with my photos some of the line that comic artists are permitted to cross."
Alas, we don't get to view Gwen in the elaborate, stringent bondage of her namesake, but in the "Homage to Eric Stanton" sequence, we enjoy the training of Gwen's new husband by guest dominatrix Mistress Natasha, who uses Stanton's trademark methods. Poor Brandon, his rampant cock and balls tightly leashed, is dressed in high-heeled boots and a frilly apron, paddled, humiliated, and put to demeaning domestic duty. The taboo against male organs in fetish art is gloriously broken here; the men stand out proudly. There's fellatio and penetration, activities usually relegated to hardcore. Kroll deserves applause for both shattering taboo and emphasizing safe sex. When Gwen, with a charming flush to her (facial) cheeks, sucks and rides the well-trained Brandon in the sling, he's condom-sheathed. When he gives her oral service, she's wearing Saran Wrap.
While this book is a breakthrough, Kroll's direction is evident in his earlier Taschen titles: Fetish Girls, and Beauty Parade, more conventional coffee table fare. They feature plenty of bondage and a little BDSM play -- human ponies, forced feminization, girl on girl domination. The massive Beauty Parade has three panel-by-panel sequences of mummification and flogging, similar to The Transformations of Gwen in concept. What Gwen adds is a minimal storyline, a far more intimate ambiance, and our heroine herself, who, like Betty Page, looks "happy as a lark, stark naked." Gwen possesses Page's wholesome delight in the midst of the naughtiest frolics.
Publisher NBM specializes in graphic novels and should be well-known to art lovers through the Eurotica and Amerotica imprints with such notables as Guido Crepax (The Story of O, Justine), Milo Manara (Click, The Art of Spanking), Georges Pichard (The Countess in Red, Marie-Gabrielle), Quinn (Shadow and Light), and Michael Manning (Lumenagerie, Cathexis). Through his friendship with erotic comic artist Manning, Kroll approached NBM, who established a new imprint for him: Amerotica Photo.
Two of Gwen's playmates -- the enigmatic Mr. Boots and the voluptuous Jessica -- nearly match Gwen's charisma. Topping Gwen in traditional leathersex style, the hooded Mr. Boots with his salt-and-pepper beard is at his most stunning in corset, garters, elbow-length gloves, spike-heeled thigh-high boots, and an impressive erection. Voracious vixen-with-a-million-dollar-smile Jessica, a next generation compatriot, has her way with a nude, blindfolded, compliant Gwen, who has pledged to keep her hands on the wall and to try not to wiggle...too much.
The sensitivity and spontaneity of Kroll's new work support his insistence that it is not pornography, which he defines as "senseless repetition" where "the photographer doesn't see the woman; he drops her into a mold." Eric Kroll broke the mold a long time ago.
Eric Kroll's website is www.fetish-usa.com.
Publisher NBM's website is www.nbmpublishing.com.
Review ©2001 by Julian Robinson
Reader Comments
Julian Robinson is a member of The Eulenspiegel Society and reviews books for Prometheus, TES'
quarterly literary magazine.
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