One day, on a flight to Berlin, photographer Max Eicke hit it off with the person in the seat next to him. The conversation felt free-flowing, they both seemed to be having a good time… until the woman mentioned that she was dominatrix. Not long after, he read the autobiography of a young literature student who also began working as a dominatrix.
Max spent the next three years digging beneath the surface of the BDSM scene in Germany, seeking personal experiences that would challenge everyday perceptions of the sex industry. But peeling back the stereotypes proved complicated. For one thing, these figures of power — used to roaring orders with absolute authority — now found themselves being questioned by a man with a camera. It took time for the posturing to fall away. Was it about being remembered? Was it vanity? My role remained unclear to the subjects, for whom the camera seemed to offer some kind of salvation — a false promise inherent to photography.
All the women came from a wide range of ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, their motivations to work in BDSM being just as diverse. Some were self-assured and independent, Max says, others appeared vulnerable — stuck in the industry for lack of an alternative. Now, having pulled together the results into a book calls Dominas , the pictures are accompanied by anonymous quotes from the women seen here in red text. I am myself.
As a teenager, he dreamed of becoming either a detective or a painter — like his grandfather — but now he feels his approach to photography is turning into a blend of both: creating work that explores hidden worlds and questions established values or hierarchies. In this case, portraying the BDSM world meant picking apart the double lives that many dominatrixes lead until they reached a point of emotional honesty — overturning many of his own preconceptions challenged along the way.
Once, while interviewing a dominatrix in her dungeon, she told her slave — dressed in nothing but a loincloth — to bring Max a Coke. Later, she allowed the slave to sit in on the conversation and it turned out he was an art historian who had a lot to contribute. At first Max felt confused, not knowing how to react, but he soon realised that BDSM is about people, rather than their masks or roles. Dominas is published through Kehrer Verlag. Find out more about Max Eicke. Enjoyed this article?
