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The Art of the Art By Lochai Beautiful woman, poor photography… beautiful photography, poor angle… great bondage, blurry image… crisp focus, lousy bondage… Sound familiar? For years I looked for imagery that stirred me in more than one way. I wanted to view art that just… well, worked. Not only because the woman in the image was strikingly beautiful, not only because there was rope bound tightly around the soft curves of well tanned hips, not only because, because, because. The image in and of itself needed to work for me to appreciate it. It was difficult for me to find bondage and fetish images that I loved enough to hang on my walls. So, I did the next best thing, I made them myself. I set out to create living art and then record it in a more permanent medium, photography. I started tying up girls when I was about 6 years old on the school bus. The girl sitting next to me was trying to tickle me and would not stop; the thing is, I’m not ticklish and all it was doing was pissing me off. I took my belt off and asked if I could put it around her arms and body, she said yes…consent; the rest is history. When doing bondage for my own and my partner’s pleasure, it may not really matter how the ropes look, if the lights are on, or if the radio is tuned to a talk show. But if I am rigging for others to see I make sure to take care to make it pleasing. This is not to say that all the ropes need to be laid perfectly, but it just needs to work. Now once the living art, often considered performance art, is complete, people walk away with multiple images in their head. I have no control over what I have given them to ponder later. The performance lasts only as long as they are viewing our play- it’s not just a moment in time. What I want to send the viewers along with afterwards in the form of my photography is one moment in time that conveys the entire performance/play. This is where care comes in to make the image work. One shot to tell the story in such a way that others will “get” it. Photography has many facets
and many specialties; documentary, commercial, fashion,
She arrives, we talk, and we set up limits as to what will be tied, how and where, the limits of her mental, emotional & physical condition… “If you break your toys, you don’t get to play with them again…” We set things up before hand just as in a negotiated “scene” so that the rigging/shoot can go with minimal talking. We don’t want to break the energy that will start flowing… I make sure my camera batteries are at full charge, memory card in, extra on my hip, my lenses are within reach, the lights are set, and the ropes are within reach. The beauty before me pulls the sash loose that is holding her robe closed, I look at her pale skin, choose a natural hank of rope out of my bag and approach her…… To be continued… Next: The Shoot -Lochai
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abstract,
portrait, sports, astrophotography, B&W, infrared, forensic, aviation,
etc… What I enjoy exploring is fine art. Just within fine art there are
many different areas of study and for me, its fetish- especially
bondage. Most bondage images that have been around come from the web;
the only ones I enjoyed consistently are from Japanese bondage sites,
and these are made by professional photographers who hired professional
riggers and bottoms/models. Here in the states, I was inspired by James
Mogul of Nawashibari.com, who was doing what I wanted to see. I had put
my camera down a few years prior and set out to find someone local who
could capture my rope art with their camera instead. It just so
happened that a photographer with the skill found me first, and we
created a fine art bondage site together. Along with James’s site, ours
was one of the first around, and it was geared towards only fine art
images, not galleries filled with 200 images. After a few years my
partner and I went our separate ways, so I picked my camera up again. I
created the rope art and I knew what aspect of it I wanted to convey to
my viewers. I sort of became a one stop shop in the art of art
creation. I started to rig for the sole purpose of capturing it with
the lens. I guess you could say I had become a documentary/fine art
photographer. This is not to say that the bondage itself was any less
restrictive, on the contrary, it needed to be just as restrictive, if
not more so, because I also wanted to convey the emotions of my
partners’ predicaments as well as their beauty. 
Every step of the way, from
where I plan to do my rigging, to time of day for lighting, to how deep
into the scene I/we will get (Head-space), needs to be considered. I
need to be more a choreographer of a play or dance than just a rigger.
Just doing my thing. I lay the ropes the same but I need, or at least
want, to have control over what the final result will look like. So I
choose ropes not only for their bondage capabilities but also for their
photographic attributes. Red looks amazing for B&W images; green shows
like black in low light situations, natural give a more “traditional”
Kinbaku feel to the scene. I need to make sure all is set before I
begin to tie so that all is not lost to the model who many times wishes
to “disappear” into head-space as I tie and shoot, tie some more and
shoot some more….