DAMSELS IN DISTRESS? Guerrero’s take on breaking down in pending Auto Erotica (Circa Press)
Alejandra Guerrero: Auto Erotica Kickstarter campaign launches
Auto Erotica, photographer Alejandra Guerrero’s second book collaboration with publisher Circa Press, documents her view of cars as objects of desire, much like the women she depicts in, on and around them. Assuming the Kickstarter funding campaign just launched for the book reaches its target by mid-May, this follow-up to 2020’s acclaimed Wicked Women will be out this autumn. Banner by Guerrero: Mistress Iris with slave and Ferrari. White latex Duchess dress: William Wilde
Auto Erotica, the second photo-book project for Circa Press by celebrated fetish/erotic photographer Alejandra Guerrero, has launched with a Kickstarter funding campaign that runs until May 13.
This follow-up to 2020’s well-received monograph Wicked Women represents “an intense period of creative work and a life-long fascination with the automobile” — the Chicago-based photographer explains.
Raised in Bogotá, Colombia, Guerrero grew up against a backdrop of sleek automobiles. As a child she would sit in the driver’s seat of her mother’s Mercedes and dream of one day being in control of such an elegant machine.
Her father was a mechanical engineer whose hobby was restoring cool cars, and she would watch him at work, taking in the details of fins and fenders. It sparked a fascination, which became an adult passion, which eventually inspired an entire body of work.
“Cars are in my bloodstream,” says Alejandra. “I love them as objects of desire and adventure. I’ve owned many cars and made countless road trips, and always get a kick from being behind the wheel.”
But for the avoidance of doubt, Auto Erotica is much more than a book of automobile photography.
It’s a collection of images that combine cars with Alejandra’s parallel passion for photographing powerful, sexy women — something she does in a style that frequently references the influence on her work of the great Helmut Newton.
Auto Erotica promises to be a thrilling photographic adventure. A breakdown on a remote road, a double life, a body shop after hours, daydreaming in traffic, an illicit tryst… these are just some of the scenes in which she places the car as an elegant protagonist.
The Auto Erotica Kickstarter campaign has a target of £22,500 which (only if reached or exceeded) will facilitate printing of this large coffee-table volume in time to ship to supporters in October.
As the Kickstarter page points out, using this fundraising method allows the publisher to offer a beautiful book at an affordable price — with printing in Belgium on fine art paper by one of Europe’s leading presses.
With an investment of more than £25,000 needed to produce a book of this quality, the traditional publishing business model would necessitate a retail price in excess of £125.
Using Kickstarter as a platform — Circa boss David Jenkins explains — enables retention of all the qualities of a £125 book while being able to sell it for just £60 ($75 in the US).
Pledging via Kickstarter, David adds, also means you will be joining an exclusive group of collectors and become the owner of a signed copy of Auto Erotica. A range of unique bonus packages is also available.
Beyond the minimum £60 pledge needed for a signed copy of the book are nine further pledge levels which offer various reward packages containing the signed book plus prints. There are discounted gift packages of two or more books, plus collectors’ specials including three boxed edition options.
The top pledge level of £7,500 (or more!) secures not just a boxed edition with a selection of prints but also, for backer and a partner, a two-hour photo shoot with Alejandra. (Just three of these are available, and only to residents of the UK, the US and continental Europe).
Published in large hardcover format (26 x 30cm) on fine art paper, Auto Erotica will have 208 pages containing approximately 220 colour and black and white images. Its first edition will comprise 500 numbered copies.
The book will include an introduction by Miss Rosen, a celebrated New York-based writer who began penning reviews for The Village Voice in 1997. She now runs her own Miss Rosen Editions imprint publishing art, photography, memoir, and fiction titles, and also writes for the likes of Time, Vogue, Artsy, Aperture, i-D, and Dazed.
You can find out more about the Kickstarter campaign, including full details of all the reward packages, via the link below.
BELOW: Some fetishy images from Alejandra Guerrero’s forthcoming Auto Erotica book (Circa Press), including larger versions of pix above. Click/tap thumbnail to view fullsize image and start slideshow
Tags: Book Releases, Fundraising, Photographers
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