QUICK PLUG: Amentium’s Rewired latex collection photographed by Richard Bailey in late 2019 (models: Craig, Gracie, Holly). See also this article’s companion feature on Rewired (link below)
The self-deprecation in Richard Bailey’s Holly pic caption reinforces the impression I have from conversations at fetish events that, however seriously he takes his art, he doesn’t take himself too seriously. Is that a fair appraisal?
“I think if you have nothing to say about the image, then why are you sharing it?” he responds. “Sense of humour is paramount for me. I cannot work with someone who doesn’t have one.
“My father always told me that life is as short as a click of the fingers so make sure you enjoy it. I try to live by that. Let’s be honest, I am not doing anything groundbreaking so I cannot take myself seriously. And everyone loves a bit of self-deprecation.”
Genuine friendships with models
Joking aside, though, the photographer generally speaks very warmly of the models he shoots with and clearly has genuine friendships with many of them.
“An awful lot of the models I work with, I would consider real friends,” he confirms, “to the extent that I was Maid Of Honour recently for Jezabelle!
“While I do not think you need to be friends to get good images, it is important to develop a sense of trust with a model to get the best out of them. It also helps if you are aligned aesthetically.
“Models wearing something they don’t like or doing something they don’t like rarely give good outcomes. I always spend pre-shoot time getting to know the model and trying to find some mutual ground to build on.
“The friendships have been a byproduct of that. I always remember driving to my studio in Weymouth with Chloe Anna Marie [cover model for our original Amentium article] a couple of years back.
“She said, ‘Shooting with you isn’t like doing a shoot, it’s like spending a day with a friend’.” Ah, bless! Any other tips for ’togs apart from ‘be nice to your models’? “Yes,” he says. “Have a good playlist!”
Asked which models are his regulars and/or favourites, he comes up with the following list “in no particular order”: Holly A T, Xiayah, Chloe Anna Marie, Valis Volkova, Virus Infekt, Ivana Hyde, Gracie Lockheart, Gigi Myra Diana (also a wicked MUA, he notes) and Sierra Colleen (when she is in the UK).
He adds that he has also been “flirting with Ruby Alexia and Alt Lady Decay recently”, so we should expect something featuring them soon, too.
In terms of fetish designers, while Richard’s most extensive collaboration is of course with Amentium, he has shot with a fair number of other brands, and they’re not exclusively latex names, as he explains.
Other Bailey designer favourites
“I have a very good relationship with Rose Noir, who was one of the very first designers to lend me items, and we still work together regularly.
I met Mags from Pandora Deluxe at Avantgardista in Munich and was super pleased to get some of her pieces to shoot with Chloe and April. I am hoping to shoot more of her pieces this year.
“I like the elegant simplicity of Chronomatic Luxury Latex and [designer] Karina is a joy to work with. Gee at Broke Boutique always has fun stuff to shoot. Ada Zanditon is another favourite. Her exoskeletal pieces are amazing.
“Jaci and Cane have been arch collaborators whose studio pieces are always breathtaking. They have always been supportive and super fun to deal with.
“Another inspiring designer I am proud to work with is Una Burke, whose leather work has appeared in The Hunger Games. Plus I recently shot some crazy Monika Bereza garments and I want more!”
Who among designers would he love to shoot with? “A dream would be to shoot some Kurage latex — I find his work totally inspiring. Right up my street!
“Also, the latex millinery of Marie Devilreux, and Etereshop with their futuristic mirror and LED creations are another goal.
“On a softer side I would like to shoot some Elfzhou lingerie. Plus Chained & Stoned, Agnieszka Osipa, Lady Caolin… I could go on!
I guess (correctly) that Richard Bailey first spotted some of the brands he namechecks above at the same Avantgardista weekend where I saw them, and where he and I bumped into each other.
This prompts me to ask which fetish events he has found most interesting recently, and what he generally aims to get out of an event he attends.
“I generally go to these events either to shoot for someone specifically or to schmooze and catch up with friends. There is always a very good vibe at these events and I seem to spend most of the time laughing.
“We have a nice little squad together now for the foreign events and it is a nice break from the UK scene. It gives me a chance to schmooze with new and different creatives. German Fetish Ball is now a regular trip and we have a blast with our German friends.
“We attended Prague Fetish Weekend last October and were pleasantly surprised. It was well organised, although the different venues every night made logistics a touch testing.
“The organisers are really trying hard (they got in touch after the event to ask how they could improve) and I think it could develop into something very good indeed.
“For me, from a photographic perspective, Avantgardista in Munich was very good with a lot of brands and designers I had not seen before.
“Again, the organisers were very accommodating, even to the extent that they allowed Chloe Anna Marie and me into the cellars beneath the venue to shoot!”
Bailey lives in Addlestone, Surrey — that “city of a thousand delights” just inside the M25. While this provides easy enough access to London, he tends to favour the south coast resort of Weymouth over London for studio shoots.
“I started shooting at Art Asylum three or four years ago, when it was in the old Devenish Brewery building on the quay at Weymouth. We had not only a bog-standard studio with infinity wall etc, but also the vast building to shoot in from the rooftop to the cellars.
Sharing a studio by the seaside
“Alas, the building was sold to a Russian oligarch and it is now multi-million pound apartments. So the studio moved down the promenade and I was asked if I would like to join the syndicate there.
“We have two (soon to be three) sets including the obligatory white infinity wall plus more ‘shabby chic’ vintage brick wall and oak floor, natural light kinda sets.
“It basically costs me a month what a London studio costs for an hour! I can pretty much shoot when I like and the beach is 50 yards away!”
In conversations I’ve had with Richard Bailey, he comes across as very much his own man, and not someone overly influenced by the photographic greats. This is an observation he readily confirms.
“When I started, I intentionally avoided looking at other people’s work as I wanted to develop my own style, and literally just read the camera manual.
“But having always been interested in art, I was aware of the work of people like Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton, Beaton and Parkinson.
“A personal hero was Ralph Meatyard, a little known American optician who developed a unique surreal style in the artistic isolation of rural Kentucky. I guess that was the motivator for my own beginnings.”
That said, is there anyone at this point in his career that he would be flattered to be compared with?
“To be honest, I don’t think I would want to be compared to any other photographer, although it’s inevitable. My definition of a ‘great’ is someone who does not remind you of anyone else. That does not mean I think I am great, by the way.
Shout-out for Vermeer and Goya
“I am definitely inspired by art, such as in the use of light by Vermeer and Goya. And I have always had a deep love of music — I was a club DJ for a while.
“I use music in post-production to induce the right mood for the image, be it the arias of Maria Callas or Poison Ivy of The Cramps shredding her Rickenbacker guitar.
Exposure to creative things sparks me off. While at the Prague event, Chloe and I went to the Alfons Mucha exhibition and we were soon talking about how we could do a Mucha-inspired Art Nouveau shoot.
Now that really would be a genre fluid project!
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Companion piece: Amentium Rewired
Who among designers would Richard Bailey love to photograph? ‘A dream would be to shoot some Kurage latex – I find his work totally inspiring. Right up my street’
RICHARD BAILEY IMAGES: Click a preview then click any thumbnail to view image/start slideshow
Tags: Designers, Latex, Leather, Lingerie, Models, Photographers
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