mitchmen

My blog has moved back to mitchmen at blogger (see sidebar for link) and you will find the complete A-Z of Fetish Artists (so far) there plus other articles about things that inspire me. I am still deciding how to continue this blog. Look out for announcements at mitchmen.com. If you haven't visited the new Gallery yet, do have a look (link in sidebar)

 Macbeth - Night Assault

Macbeth's pictures of grim faced men wearing leather jackets and peaked caps and making brutal attacks on naked squirming victims invoke forbidden desires which are almost mainstream in the world of cinema these days. His work foreshadows Greasetanks chilling imagery and although his technique focuses more on drama rather than beauty it's highly effective.

 MCarcel - Pony Boy Races

The second quality I assess for my favourite artist is the fetish content. Obviously Max and Mishima score highly in this area too, but for a whole host of 'M' artists it's the subject matter which catches the eye - much of it pushing at the most challenging boundaries ot conventional taste. Mike Carcel's bizarre festivals of deadly tortures stand out though for the sake of this summary I have chosen a less gruesome example of his work. It's very much in the mitchmen tradition of 'putting men in their place' and a strikingly original take on the Pony Boy theme

 

Mishima demonstrates a particularly Japanese technique and technical skill is one of the qualities I look for in choosing my 'best' artists but one other 'M' stands out in this respect - Max, whose work was a revelation when I surveyed it properly (for the first time) for this review. His picture 'Stone Step' demonstrates his original technique and ability to create a compelling, beautifully balanced and wonderfully erotic image.

Marquis's pictures are important, but in terms of pure artistry, Mishima's delicate Japanese bondage images are even better. Their subtle eroticism and elegance of style make them a timeless evocation of male captivity.

Mishima - Man tied to a post

Musgrave wasn't the only Bondage Specialist under the letter 'M', Marquis's sometimes quirky images are a notable milestone in the expression of erotic bondage as beautiful art.

 

 Musgrave - Roped

I have covered 23 different fetish artists in my survey of the letter 'M' - a staggering number iincluding a number whose subject matter is very controversial (especially for Google apparently!). Since previous postings have been lost with my deleted blog, I propose to recap the highlights as I select my customary 'favourite'. Starting with Musgrave which I selected as a header image for it's simple 'essence of bondage'

Moc's refreshing style and lightly nuanced peril situations deserve to be better known.   

'Safeword' captures a very erotic bondage pose but the addition of an obviously gloating captor and the stop sign is seriously threatening despite the humourous treatment. Regular readers will know I prefer good fetish art to be unlaced with humour but Moc's pictures can be mentally flipped.

 

 

 

 

He captures clean cut youth very well and the Tight Shift - Caught picture is surprisingly erotic considering it's lack of explicitness. The dangling cuffs and anxious expressions fire the imagination for what is to follow.

 

 

 

Getting to know... is a later picture in the same series and contains elements of menace and humiliation. Once again the faces tell all and the clarity of the bondage detail and gagging is erotic in it's own right. The glimpse of the officer's badge on his gag identifies it as his own ripped shirt prompting the viewer to imagine the preceding scene. The intertwining of the bodies in this picture is ambitious, visually disentangling bodies is difficult in any picture, even photos. The simplified colour palette of the cartoon style doesn't help much in creating the illusion of depth, but Moc just about gets away with it thanks to careful colouring and the uncluttered depiction of the captive's torso's.

 

The style is economical but surprisingly realistic thanks to accurate overall anatomy and careful selection of points to detail. The characters facial expressions and particularly the eyes are striking. The expression of depth and anchoring of the posed characters in their setting is less convincing but the cartoony style provides an alibi for this. Moc draws on photographic sources but he transforms them into a disitinctive, attractive and fascinating images.

 

Moc's work can be found at the BoundGuys site

There is a whole series of Bondage Furniture pictures by Mitchell

This one is number 11 and is called 'The Cog Wheel'. The device uses the captives own weight to gradually impale himself.

You can see the full set at Mitchell's Yahoo Group (address in sidebar).