Laurent Benaïm - Laurent Benaïm - 2019

STILL SHRINK-WRAPPED

OUT OF PRINT FOR A LONG TIME

The majority of so-called erotic photography is a soporific and an impertinence; it offends the imagination, intelligence and baser instincts in equal measure. Its poses are out of mothballs and the models from the catalog of normative beauty ideals, young, athletic and mostly white. Laurent Benjamin is different: “I have always been fascinated by sex, the variety of practices and the absolute will of people to realize their fantasies,” says the Parisian photographer. “These moments of pleasure captivate me in all their forms: the beautiful and the ugly. I have no criteria for an aesthetic selection, I am only interested in the expression of human desire.” Benaïm does not give a damn about body norms, gender identity, sexual orientations and preferences. Anyone who drops by his studio is allowed to look how they want and show what they want - Benaïm himself only acts as a witness and observer, as a creative advisor with an unbiased camera. The photographer only takes pictures of amateurs, who can be young and old, hetero-, homo-, bi-, inter- or transsexual, straight, crooked, fat and thin. They have been flocking to Benaim's large commercial studio in the Parisian suburb of Montreuil since 1999, ever since word got around that their inclinations, quirks and obsessions are not only accepted here, but are even turned into art using a special printing technique from the 19th century. The technique of rubber bichromate mutes the extremism of his subject matter and has allowed him to exhibit in Paris, Berlin, Milan, Luxembourg, Zurich and - fittingly - at the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research in Bloomington, Indiana, USA.Laurent Benaïm presents 300 of the photographer's 1000-plus images in a book that is sure to be one of TASCHEN's most daring - and most talked about - coffee table books.