I hate it when this happens, but I genuinely can’t remember where I found this website. It’s not a full-on erotic photographer’s personal site (as in all n00ds and yummy mayhem) but it does have an enjoyable distraction in galleries that feature the eerie visions of Corrado Dalcò. Visions that come in the form of his fashion work and personal follies, featuring Polaroid, Holga, video, various tear sheets and curious categories such as bondage (unlinked: photo set model has offensive tattoo) and “a week.” I think his Tumblr is pretty and his Flickr can be kinda dirty. Panamanian born, London based Dalcò’s work strikes me as something Richard Kadrey might like – even though in Dalcò’s photos there is a visible deficit of tentacles, neck braces and gummy bears lodged in those hard-to-reach places.
I understand about the unlinking and the warning and it seems a reasonable thing to do. It does, however, beg a whole new question about visible censorship drawing more attention- rock and roll certainly owes some of its popularity to the censoring of Elvis & his pelvis in the ’50s. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t- it just points to the importance of editing well at the beginning of a project.
And I certainly didn’t miss any of the strengths of the image or the facility of the photographer that made it- I earned a degree in photography from SFAI, I can critique and discourse about photography until the cows come home. I am sure that in this case the photographer’s lack of exposure to a peculiar brand of US racism is the cause of these images’ slipping through filters. (a search for ’14 words’ will provide clarity).
Tattoos are not hard to cover and getting cheaper to remove (there are even non-profit opportunities to remove racist or gang tattoos), I have only to conjecture that this model still holds these sentiments dear at some level- that she might gain some tolerance in her travels outside of the US is the best that might be hoped for.
I apologize for the pictures and forgive my insensitivity in publishing the pictures (in fact I never read that right phrase on the model’s stomach, and I have not understood the last word).
I could easily remove these images, but in my opinion, apart from the horrible sentence written on the stomach, the project would lose in accuracy and depth. I took these pictures in France, where there was a show of bondage. I just wanted to document the performance, but what they have missed out is something strange in my opinion. especially the intensity of the gaze of the last three shots I hit a lot. forgive even if my images have upset your sensibilities. the phrase makes no sense to me.
@boundwellsf – Thank you for pointing that out. I couldn’t read it. You pointed it out and I blew it up/rotated and I see what you mean – that’s a disgusting sentiment. I definitely don’t endorse that. I have no idea if the artist does or does not by means of putting that model on his site, or if it’s a different kind of statement. Or a situation with a story. The rest of the site does not seem to echo the sentiment. The artist’s motivations or ideas are not my call to make. However, I don’t “unpublish” posts because of my beliefs about best practices in blogging, nor do I make “silent” edits – I’ve had both done to me, as a direct personal attack. In this case I’m unlinking the set and putting a warning up. I can’t presume to know what’s going on here and I don’t know the context of that situation. But I agree with your feelings.
the ’14 words’ tattoo on the 2nd ‘bondage’ model’s stomach turns mine (starting image 11). i am going to guess that it was missed or not even on the radar.
who knows what the photographer’s allegiances might be but the models aren’t a mystery and they are sickening. were this my site I would drop the link, the photographer’s capability will be forever overshadowed by his model’s racism, at least for me….