If you spend any time at all browsing fetish models’ websites and MySpace pages, it isn’t very long before the name Maxime Avet crops up. Given that this young Frenchman is not yet 24 years old, he has already photographed an impressive number of the scene’s better known and more photogenic females.

But if you look at the quality of his work, it’s not really so surprising. One of the most useful talents a fetish model can develop, once she’s mastered the knack of throwing some sexy shapes in kinky clothes, is the ability to spot a rising photographic star — someone talented enough to make her look good, but fresh enough not to be jaded yet by excessive exposure to latex-wearing lovelies of the high-maintenance variety.

And clearly, among a good few of the more widely travelled members of the modelling sorority, there is a realisation that shooting with Maxime Avet is No Bad Thing.

The seeds for Avet’s gravitation towards fetish subjects were sewn from quite a young age when he found himself attracted to the world of fashion. The designers whose fashion shows he most enjoyed watching on television were Mugler, Versace and Montana, all of whom drew on fetish influences for some of their most powerful creations.

As a student, Maxime studied literature but also began to learn the art of photography from his father. As time went by, he decided that photography should become “more than a passion”, and as a result, he is now enjoying realising his vision of the “femme fatale of the 21st century”.

This vision — of women who are “very glamorous, chic and strong-minded” — is reflected in the heroes he cites on his MySpace page: Wonder Woman, Emma Peel, Poison Ivy and Catwoman. It is also pretty obvious from his work which, he says, reflects his admiration for such photographers as Christophe Mourthé, Gaetan Caputo and Martin Perreault.

Avet — originally from Roubaix in Northern France but now based in Paris — only started shooting fetish subjects in earnest in 2005, after being inspired by seeing his work published for the first time in the world famous Photo magazine. In that year, most of his models were French fetish figures such as Eve Adeline, Mina and Hedony, but he also worked with Brits including Vanessa Upton, Jane Doe, Amalthea and her twin sister Ulorin Vex.

His reputation spread around the modelling scene and in the following year his work became much more international in scope, including shoots with a bevy of well-known Americans such as Kyla Cole, Dante Posh, Emily Marilyn, Veronica, Hazmat, Darenzia and Kumi. It also featured such familiar UK faces as Chinagirl, Morrigan Hel, Morgana, Harlot Rouge and October, alongside Euro stars like Chloe, Cindy75, Nikla Black and Elva.

So far in 2007, his work has had a strong pan-European feel with shoots ranging from France’s Saba and Holland’s Ancilla Tilia to Germany’s WildAtHeart and Poland’s premier pervy pair, DevilAngels Natasha de Viant and Diva Izazella. There have also been shoots with new US subjects including Ruby Luster, and return matches for a number of his previous Brit and American models.

Clearly this man has a real talent, to have shot so many of fetishism’s finest in such a short length of time. Or perhaps his models just can’t resist a man whose interests in philosophy and literature are right up there with a taste for latex, leather and PVC.

‘Perhaps his models just can’t resist a man whose interests in philosophy and literature are right up there with a taste for latex, leather and PVC’