Marquis Magazine founder Peter W Czernich has put together a book of the early photographs he shot of Dita Von Teese that helped propel her towards fetish superstardom.

There can hardly be anyone today who isn’t aware of Dita’s fame as a performer and fashion icon who can regularly be seen on the red carpets of fashion galas and film festivals. Her own show Glamonatrix is a huge worldwide success.

Czernich, who founded Marquis in 1994 and published it for almost 30 years before selling it — not once but twice — to new owners, was one of the first photographers to shoot with Dita.

Today, he still shoots and publishes books, engages in various fetish projects and maintains a friendly relationship with the new publisher of Marquis. Of his work with Dita Von Teese, he recalls:

“In the years 1996-2004, we shot about 3,000 photos and 20 hours of video. After one especially productive session, she said to me: ‘Today we shot a whole book!’.”

Dita appeared often on the cover and inside pages of Marquis, and Czernich published two earlier monographs assembled from his years of working with her.

These were Fetish Goddess Dita, published in 2002, and Vintage Dita: the Early Fetish Years in 2008. The latter sold out many years ago but, says Peter, “The Swiss publisher didn’t care to reprint, so I decided to do it myself.

“I think this is a bit of fetish history, and certainly an important one for my career. Dita is in a class of her own, and this book is my homage to her”.

Books signed and sold by Dita herself

Peter adds that Dita Von Teese is totally onboard with the project and will sign and sell copies of the book herself.

The new book, which is funding on Kickstarter for another eight days, is called Dita Von Teese – the Early Shootings. But don’t be alarmed — ‘shootings’ is just European English for what us Brits call ‘shoots’, and is not meant to suggest that Dita had a previous career as a serial killer.

The project has already raised £10,689 towards its target of £12,785 (these being approximate sterling equivalents of the campaign’s original euro amounts). So it won’t take many more pledges over the next week or so to reach the goal that will enable publishing to go ahead.

As usual with Kickstarter campaigns, there are a variety of rewards on offer to encourage pledges of financial support — which are only ‘cashed in’ if the campaign reaches its goal in the allotted time.

All the following pledge levels listed include worldwide shipping (GBP conversions of euro pledge values are approximate). Estimated delivery time is July 2023.