In an age when coffee table fetish photography books are ever rarer commodities, a new volume from one of the genre’s most admired and enduring artists must be doubly welcome.

Steve Diet Goedde: Extempore, the subject of a Kickstarter campaign that launched on Monday February 18, is the latest project from the Los Angeles-based master of fine art fetish photography-with-a-twist.

The twist being that, while renowned for his ability to make latex-clad women look as shiny and glamorously sexy as any of his fetish contemporaries do, Goedde offers rather more than the genre’s typically glossy but often ultimately predictable pin-up images.

Steve’s idea of a great shot may well crop out the head of one of his beautiful models, or catch her from an unusual angle that other photographers would probably consign permanently to the outtakes bin.

He looks for ways to capture gorgeous women as living characters rather than just clothes horses — an approach he shares with past greats such as Helmut Newton and Bob Carlos Clarke (one of his major influences).

The style of his images might sometimes give the impression that he coaxes his subjects into precarious static poses that they are obliged to hold while he fires away with the shutter.

However, with Goedde, it’s much more about capturing the perfect moment in a ‘live sequence’ to create the narrative he looks for in a picture.

And Steve Diet Goedde: Extempore is a collection of images that takes this concept to its logical extreme by focusing on favourite unrehearsed, unposed, candid and stolen moments from more than two decades of shoots.

With images ranging from Kumi Monster and Marne Lucas in 1996 through to Alejandra Guerrero in 2018, the book is testament to the pantheon of fetish modelling talent Steve has collaborated with over the years.

Within its pages you’ll find the likes of Angela Ryan, Ulorin Vex, Black Widow, Emily Marilyn, Lucy Fur, Apnea, Tall Goddess, Yee, Midori, Darenzia, Skin Diamond, Ivy Red, Masuimi Max, Mosh, Miss Miranda, Stoya, Jade Vixen and many more.

BLACK WIDOW, Beverly Hills 2001 (SD Goedde)

Fans of Geodde’s work will doubtless recognise some of the shoots represented here from different selections published in previous books. But most of the images in Extempore have never been seen before.

The finished book, to be published by London-based Circa Press, has been designed by Rosa Nussbaum to give the kind of visual breathing space to individual images that is rarely afforded in fetish photo books any more.

Approximately 100 B&W and colour photos are spread across no less than 160 pages of heavy art paper.

And given that the vast majority of the images are portrait format, this means that many of them sit on spreads opposite a white page that is blank save for a picture caption.

Some captions are just simple iterations of the model’s name with the location and year of the shoot.

But in others the author adds a few extra lines of background information that can give a fascinating glimpse into what was in the photographer’s mind or what else was going on at the time.

Take this caption to the shot taken of Ulorin Vex in LA in 2007 with most of her face obscured by a steel girder, which you can find below in our gallery of Extempore spreads. Says Steve:

To take light readings through my camera, you have to press the shutter down halfway. I often accidentally take photos by pressing the button down too far. Sometimes these result in very satisfying happy accidents

Or this accompaniment to a shot of Darenzia trying to warm up by wearing a jacket over her rubber outfit on a chilly shoot in 2006:

Not all weather conditions are ideal for wearing latex. In the heat, models boil. In the cold, their sweat freezes. As Darenzia knows, it’s important to stay comfortable between shots.

“My photographs have multi-layered intentions,” the photographer explains when we chat about the philosophy behind the book’s picture choices. 

“They’re not mere documentations of sexy fashion — they’re about the human being who is wearing the fashion. They’re also about light and composition. 

“All these elements have to converge in order to make a successful photograph. Most of the talent has to do with noticing these moments and acting within a split second to get the desired result in a technically proficient manner.

“I’ve captured some very unflattering ‘getting ready’ moments,” he admits, “but this is simply a collection of the ones that ‘worked’.”

Knowing a fair few of the models in Steve Diet Goedde: Extempore as I do, I’d say they’re not necessarily the type of women to tolerate too much freezing or sweltering for just any guy with a camera.

But Steve doesn’t seem to have a problem with earning and keeping subjects’ trust. Reciprocal regard seems to be the order of the day.

“I’m only interested in capturing the true inner and outer beauty of my subjects,” he says.

“I only shoot models for whom I have the deepest respect, so I’m not interested in