The Vintage Erotic Photography ofJacques Biederer

Czech photographer Jacques Biederer began his Parisian career in 1913 with G-rated portraiture but soon moved on to more prurient subject matter—though this was still fairly “conventional” sexy materials for the day—ladies in their underwear, really. Then Biederer went through a period of full-on classical nudes, sometimes with couples, sometimes shot “on location,” outdoors or on a carefully arranged set. Then he got into fetish photography—whips, domination, corseting, pony play—pretty scandalous stuff, but always shot with an artistic eye. Biederer was a forerunner of someone like Irving Klaw in the US.

Biederer’s work—whether a smiling ingenue or a dominatrix always valued composition, the emotions of his subjects, and sexuality—rather than simple sex mechanics. Even if it ain’t your bag, the photos are lovely and weird—they have a sense of humour about them and they aren’t misogynist or pretentious. His dames were often the doms, whipping their male slaves, but sometimes it was the other way around. These are some of the more “safe for work” pictures, but you can see (slightly) more explicit stuff here, though he never did anything “hardcore.” He also made some giggly stag films, but again, we’re talking a lot of cutesy, sapphic slap and tickle (literally, the guy was apparently way into spanking).

There's a sad end to this story though, during the German occupation of France, Jacques (who was Jewish) was arrested and deported with transport 6 from Pithiviers to Auschwitz-Birkenau on 17 July 1942 and died the same year.