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Monday, Nov 9, 2009
Photographer Ellen von Unwerth talks about her new S/M fantasy book, "Revenge," in which the wicked baroness finally gets what's coming to her.
Jul 18, 2003 | Ellen says it was hot at the chateau. At least the air was hot -- hot enough to make the three rich femmes from the city strip down to their garters. While Ellen watched, the girls French-kissed on the grass. They wallowed in the wet garden mud. Ellen raised her camera and captured the mud caking their breasts, the mud slopping down their butts.
Then she photographed how the maid hosed each girl down.
Don't think I'm taking Ellen's word for any of this. I have seen the pictures. You can too. They're in a book. In the old days, one would have had to slide into some fake "rare" book store, and sneak out with this volume wrapped in brown paper on loan for 50 bucks a week. But these are modern times. You can buy this book at Borders and place it on your coffee table. Your guests will be free to page through it. No one will get arrested. No one will think bad thoughts about you. Not even when they turn to Page 75 -- Eric the chauffeur has "lured the girls into captivity." He ties one to an "old flogging post." Later, the wicked baroness -- of course a "wicked baroness" is involved -- chains one of those coy mademoiselles to a radiator. It would be a shame if the distressed girl soiled her underpants. Later still, the Baroness' maid flogs a rich man's daughter in the pony stable -- the pony himself not particularly curious as the hieroglyphs of pain are raised on the poor girl's rump, welts which will later be referred to in the book's slight text as "fiery Braille."
Ellen von Unwerth's sadomasochistic book (is the "von" real or fake?) could be called "The Story of E." Or "The Story of I," "The Story of M," or "The Story of C, M, I, and S." The names of shapely girls disheveled and degraded are Emily, Isabelle, Marie-Louise, Francoise, Charlotte, Mimi, Ivy and Sarah. The book is titled "Revenge." However, because in the end, Emily, Isabelle, Marie-Louise, Francoise, et al., punish the wicked baroness, the wicked maid, as well as the wicked, wicked chauffeur. That last poor sod is left tied to the chateau's gate with his pants bunched at his knees while the liberated rich girls beat him with riding crops and whips.
If Ellen von Unwerth sounds wicked as well, she is. Her last book was even titled "Ellen von Unwerth's Wicked." As sadistic as these pictures sound when described in words, they are all just sinisterly playful, as if they were taken by a naughty girl, instead of an ex-fashion model who must be sleeping with the devil. Salon talked to her by phone.
Can you tell me your life story quickly?
I was born in Germany. Then I moved to Paris when I was 20 and worked as a model for 10 years. I started to pick up photography. This is my fourth book. I work in fashion. Portraits. Everything.
How did "Revenge" come about?
I wanted to tell a story almost like a movie. I wanted to do something erotic with girls I knew would have fun doing it. So I wrote this little story and then I photographed it.
Where did you shoot?
At a chateau one hour outside of Paris. I booked the girls like a movie cast. Everyone had a character. The guy also. I showed them a script, little drawings. And had them play out little scenes.
