WORLD (JAPAN) – Over the course of the last three years, photographer Rémi Lamandé and stylist Kyle Luu have been coming together to create fashion editorials that centre Lovisa Lager. The shoots, which are simply named ‘Lovisa’, see the rising curve model depicted as a powerful femdom who rules over a troupe of willing subs, drawing inspiration from legendary NSFW works by Japanese erotic artist Namio Harukawa. Across three installations, Lager bathes her tiny men, ties them up in Shibari ropes, or otherwise uses their faces as a comfortable seat, all while decked out in silky lingerie and robes.
See a lot more and larger photo’s plus video on: Dazeddigital.com.
Now, the fourth instalment of the ongoing series has landed, and this time around, Lager has evolved into the ultimate femdom heroine. “The men have become little demons that she rules over – some are cute, some are horny little devils,” explains Lamandé of the photographs. “There is still a very sexual energy throughout, but she’s no longer involved in it.” Instead, Lager kicks back and relaxes as her naughty minions wreak havoc, shoving cucumbers down each other’s throats, cavorting in steam rooms, and play fighting amongst themselves. The whole thing takes on a nightmarish, fantastical quality, which is heavily influenced by another Japanese erotic artist, this time in the form of Toshio Saeki.
Photographer Rémi Lamandé and stylist Kyle Luu conspired to give the Japanese fetish artist’s works a contemporary fashion spin
Chances are, if you’ve ever seen one of Namio Harukawa’s works, the image is now permanently etched in your mind’s eye.
The subversive Japanese artist was known for his radical sketches depicting voluptuous women dominating far smaller, subservient men – their ample breasts and buttocks swallowing up these diminutive thrill-seekers as they sit on their faces or clasp their heads tightly between their thighs. Defiant in their disregard for conventional beauty ideals, his images are a celebration of the divine feminine power and beauty fat women – and particularly fat Asian women – hold. To label them simply ‘fetishistic’, as they so often are, is to do them a total disservice.
While Harakuwa passed away last year, his influence lives on in a new generation of creatives. Landing this week comes a new fashion editorial steered by photographer Rémi Lamandé, which draws inspiration from some of his most recognisable works. Featuring rising curve model Lovisa Lager, the images see Lager hold one man, stripped to his underwear, in a headlock, while in another, she flees the scene wearing black lingerie as two men lie in a heap on the floor.
A further photograph, perhaps the most provocative of the series, depicts the model leaning against a bar as a kneeling subservient buries his face in her bum. With Lamandé behind the camera, stylist and Solange-collaborator Kyle Luu, hair stylist Evanie Frausto, and make-up artist Raisa Flowers made up the team bringing the shoot to life.
“I think the first time I came across (Namio Harakuwa’s) images was in the bathroom of a club in Paris,” explains Lamandé. “Kyle was often posting his images and we’d been talking about doing a project around this idea for a while. What really attracted us to his work is the raw power and peaceful confidence of these girls. It’s a very different angle from the way Asian girls tend to be portrayed and stereotyped. His women are in charge – they go on about their lives and their sexuality doesn’t define them.”
With COVID restrictions allowing for only the smallest of shoots to take place, the team worked from a tiny set, which served to imbue the final photographs with a deep sense of intimacy. “Kyle and Lovisa were already good friends, and we were all very happy to be creating these images – it was a case of friends working together and trusting each other,” Lamandé adds.
With the series getting its debut on Instagram yesterday, the social media platform was quick to remove images it deemed inappropriate thanks to the sexual content depicted in them. “It’s really frustrating,” says Lamandé. “We did expect a couple of them to be taken down to be honest – especially the one where Lovisa is using a boy’s face as a human stool – but I was very surprised that some of the less sexual images were still getting banned.”
With Instagram facing criticism for removing images of larger bodies while allowing similar posts featuring smaller women to stay up, the series once again highlights the conversation around censorship and its parameters on the sharing platform. For now, however, Lamandé and his team just want us to drink in the series’ “sexual confidence, power, and happiness”. “These are happy pictures,” he concludes.
JAPAN – Namio Harukawa, a Japanese fetish artist best known for depicting voluptuous women dominating subservient men, has passed away. The news was first reported by friend and video game producer, Yuko Kitagaw, in a blog post on Friday 24 April and it is believed the cause of death is cancer.
Born in 1947 in Osaka, Japan, Harukawa was lauded for his contribution to fetish art, which he began to create in the 1960s and 70s. In the 00s, Harukawa finally became recognised through co-signs from Madonna (who shared his work on Instagram), as well as Japanese avant-garde figures such as Shūji Terayama and Onoroku Dan.
He cut his creative teeth at the Japanese pulp mag, Kitan Club, which specialised in sadomasochistic content. Although his birth name is unknown, it is said that the artist adopted his moniker Namio Harukawa by merging ‘Naomi’ – a novel by Japanese novelist Tanizaki Jun’ichirō – a Japanese actress’s name, Masumi Harukawa.
While he is notorious for his illustrations of face-sitting, Harukawa didn’t shy away from other sex acts, such as cunnilingus, anilingus, coprophilia, and urolagnia. His women are nonchalant, smoking a cigarette, sipping a cocktail, or reading a book. They are always dressed (or at least half-dressed) glamorously, while the men appear nude or in their underwear, emasculated, and used as human furniture.
Unfortunately, little is known about the enigmatic artist’s personal life. In fact, even his age is debated, and he was believed to have been either 72 or 73-years-old at the time of his death. Despite this, there are three books which have been published celebrating his work over the past 11 years, with the last released in 2019.
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