BERNADINISM

For a fuller appreciation of the range of my work visit my website here.

Once upon a time I did an evening class in airbrushing. I would print images on photographic paper then colour them with photographic ink and gouache with the airbrush.

These pictures from my new project I have been working hard on over the Christmas holidays. I thought of what the streets might look like if inappropriate content could be seen in the streets.

My first trip was to take background images was to the West End of London. I had not been there for some years and discovered that some buildings had huge posters on their sides and others being renovated had posters and hoardings sometimes up to the height of two floors. This phenomenon was new to me

Wandsworth Road

Oxford Street 1

Royal Academy of Arts

Vauxhall Cross

Southwark Cathedral

Foubert’s Place

Oxford Street 2

Oxford Street 3

Lambeth Road

London Bridge

A series of photos inspired by the children’s film, The Red Balloon. More…

I got this message today about my YouTube video from soldierforchrist which made me smile.

“What are you thinking having that video? There really are people born with abnormalities like having more than one mouth. You should not play like that. Can you imagine how someone born with more than one mouth would feel like like after viewing your video. I hope you delete your video and anything else in your life like that.

God Bless.”

If you can’t see the video click here

I have 9 pictures in the Taschen, Big Book of Pussy just published. Six of them are of the international pussy performer, Mouse. I have photographed her for over a decade after first seeing her at the semi-finals of the Erotic Awards, Stripper of the Year competition. She did not win that year but won it the same year I won the Erotic Photographer of the Year in 2002 for my book, Bernadinism; How to Dominate Men and Subjugate women, just beating  Nobuyoshi Araki. She won a holiday for two to Hedonism in Jamaica, while all I got was a gilded wooden trophy shaped like a phallus with wings. The last time a photographed her was at the beginning of the year for the big article about her in the book.

I have documented her act both on stage, at her place and in my flat, where she often made a mess. We even once did a Sex TV documentary together. When I bought a video camera to document my work, I soon thought of her and she came around to my flat and promptly made a mess again, this time with yogurt. But before the yogurt I filmed her reverse strip, where she started off naked then pulled a nightie out of her snatch and put it on. Then in my corridor, she stuck giant sparklers up her vagina and anus and waggled them about. I could only shoot that once because of all the dense smoke.

We then shot her ping pong ball act. If you have not yet seen it here it is.

This photo was first published in my 2001 book, Bernadinism; How to Dominate Men and Subjugate women (Edition Stemmle)

Here are a couple more snaps not of Mouse that made it into the book. Another two b+w’s can be seen in the preview of the book on the Taschen website.

The Philosopher Illumined by Candlelight

Yolanda

I used to be a racing cyclist and once a year I like to go to an evening meeting at Herne Hill Velodrome. If I plan it for August, in between watching the cycling, I can collect some blackberries on the wasteland around the back used for mountain biking. I eat about two for every one I put in the container. I don’t look too closely at them, so god knows how many insect grubs I actually consume also. I looked it up on Google to verify the dates only to find out the velodrome was shut for resurfacing this year, much to my disappointment. I scrolled down the page and was surprised to find an RIP for a cyclist. An accompanying picture showed him lunging for the finishing line with two others. To mild shock, I thought I recognised him in his Brixton Cycles team kit. I had not seen him in recent years but I remembered him as a good local sprinter. He interrupted my blackberrying one evening when he asked me to hold him up for the start of a handicap sprint. I balanced his bike while he tightened his double toe straps and pushed him off at the gun.

It did not say what he had died of. Did he get knocked down or die of illness? I did not know so I googled him. He had been hit by a hit and run driver and died before he reached hospital. The article also said a ghost bike had been erected to him. I had never heard of such a thing, so I googled that as well. They are junk bikes painted white and chained to posts near the accident spot. I found it haunting.

More here