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In the Fall of 1994, I began photographing lovers in the SM scene in New York. My work had explored issues of sexual desire for many years, and sadomasochism was not new to me. It was the next step in a journey I set out on many years before. I had worked as a set photographer on over 300 hardcore and SM/fetish porn movies. In that earlier work, I looked behind the scenes of making porn movies to reveal the human beings behind the sex machine image. The moments I loved were when they called a cut in the middle of an orgy scene, and the actors would drop their guard. They’d pull out cigarettes and stare off into space, like combat soldiers with a thousand yard stare, surrounded by the accouterments of the trade. For years those were the ironic moments that I loved to shoot.

When I began photographing lovers in the leather community, my vision changed. Suddenly, it was in the sexual moment — or the moment deep in SM play —when I thought the people were most profoundly real. And that became the thing I wanted to record. I wanted to capture the bond between lovers, not the disconnection. I wanted to photograph deep intimacy and trust, the two concepts which underlie all SM practices. The couples I have photographed have given me an extraordinary gift. Each one has taught me something new — about the erotic impulse, about sexual desire, about humanity. About the fact that no matter how we’re wired to express love, freedom is in having the courage to be who we are.

People have asked me why I filed a lawsuit along with the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom challenging the Communications Decency Act. As a photographer, I think it’s very important that adults have the right to look at my photographs on the Internet. But I also wanted to be sure that educational and social groups can continue to post information about SM, fetishes and cross-dressing on their websites. The CDA lawsuit is fighting for everyone’s right to freedom of expression.

When I decided to create my website, I asked lawyers what would be legal. I was told that my photographs of loving SM and behind-the-scenes shots of the porn industry could get me into trouble with Federal law under the Communications Decency Act. That’s because so-called “obscenity” is judged according to “local community standards.” But I don’t agree that someone living in a small town in the Bible Belt, or a few ranches in Idaho, can tell people all over the world what they can’t look at. I know that my photographs are not obscene. To me, obscenity is terrorism and hate. My photographs are about loving, consensual behavior between adults. I think that it should be a matter of personal choice whether an adult wants to look at my photographs.

The Internet is like a huge library, and it isn’t right for the government to tell adults what they can’t access. America was lucky under the Clinton administration, which chose to prosecute only child obscenity. But the Bush administration has made it clear under Attorney General John Ashcroft that they will pursue obscenity prosecutions. That means people like you and me are at risk.

I’m not the only one who’ s worried. One SM educational group has informed me that they were afraid to put my photographs on their website because it might violate the Internet obscenity law. It is very possible that websites like ours which focus on marginal sorts of sexual expression—SM, fetishes and cross-dressing—will be the first targets of Federal prosecutors. If community groups can’t put their educational information on the web, then everyone loses because responsible information about sexuality will be stifled.

That’s why I’m working so hard on this CDA lawsuit along with the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. NCSF is a national organization committed to protecting freedom of expression among consenting adults. Founded in 1997, NCSF mobilizes diverse grassroots communities to help change antiquated and unfair sex laws, and to protect free speech and advance privacy rights.

If you’re interested in helping me with the CDA lawsuit, please send a check or money order to help pay our lawyer John Wirenius and our law firm, Leeds, Morelli & Brown. Be sure to put: CDA Legal Fees in the memo line, and make it out to NCSF, 1312 18th Street NW, Suite 102, Washington, DC 20036.

Thank you for helping us with this historic lawsuit!

Book Review: Kiss of Fire
by Susan Wright

Ever since Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs were used to help justify the defunding of the NEA, there has been a question whether sadomasochism is a fit subject for art. Barbara Nitke answers with a resounding YES! in her new book, KISS OF FIRE. With over 60 crisp duotone photographs and published on heavy stock by Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg in Germany, Nitke presents a world of sadomasochism that few will ever see. Nitke’s photographs can be shocking at times in their frankness. A bound man cries out in pleasure and agony as another man behind him, naked to the waist, plays upon his body. A pale woman is seated on a toilet, vulnerable and timid, with all of her attention focused on the woman leaning over her. An ordinary couple stand in the classic “American Gothic” pose in front of an ordinary house, yet the woman is naked and heavily pregnant.

Each of Nitke’s photographs is attuned to the interplay between the partners and the love that manifests even in the most extreme sexual encounters. Their interaction feels spontaneous; a charged moment frozen in time. Yet each scene is framed in a gently formal composition that makes even the most outrageous accruements seem beautiful.

Nitke writes of her experience exploring the SM community and her increasing desire to photograph the lovers she saw. “I loved watching them float around together at parties,” Nitke says, “Flying on their endorphins, lost in each other. I loved the ones who would spend days cooking up intricate, delicious scenes to tantalize the other and then tell you about it afterwards like mischievous kids.”

Nitke has captured the intense energy of these couples’ passion as well as the deep intimacy and trust that is required to engage in SM. For anyone who has ever wanted a deeper look into the glorious contradictions of kinky sexuality, KISS OF FIRE is a must for you.

www.barbaranitke.com