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Barbara Nitke explores fetishes for a coffee table book

by Julia Watts

The thing I've always hated about Valentine's Day is how it reduces romance to a few cliché accessories that can be purchased. According to V-Day marketing, if you run to your nearest Super Wal-Mart, grab a Hallmark card, a heart-shaped box of waxy chocolates, and as many red roses as you can afford, then you will have captured the spirit of romance for your sweetie.

The trouble with this view, in addition to the obvious fact that romance isn't something that can be bought, is that romance means different things to different people. For insight into how different some people's view of romance is, look no further than Barbara Nitke's Kiss of Fire: A Romantic View of Sadomasochism (Kehrer Verlag, $40). Kiss is a coffee table book of black-and-white photos in which the accessories of romance include leather restraints, harnesses, hypodermic needles (for "play piercing" the skin), and cats o' nine tails. There's not a box of Russell Stover chocolates or a rose in sight, although one of the pictured practitioners is heavily tattooed in a pattern of thorns.

I am no expert on photography or sadomasochism; however, I was lucky enough to see the exhibit of Robert Mapplethorpe photos that caused such a stink in Cincinnati back when I was in college. Nitke's work invites comparison to Mapplethorpe's. She, too, is a skilled photographer who stares sexual taboos in the face. But while Mapplethorpe's SM photos focused on gay men, Nitke's representation of SM practitioners is more inclusive. Gay men are represented in her collection, but so are straight, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered practitioners.

The biggest difference between Mapplethorpe and Nitke's work may be the intent. While many of Mapplethorpe's photos were designed to shock viewers, Nitke's purpose is, as her subtitle states, to show the romance inherent in SM. All of her subjects are real partners in committed relationships, and their facial expressions often resemble the kind of swooning ecstasy that is depicted on the cover of Harlequin romance novels.

Nitke's photographs emphasize the intimacy and trust of SM (after all, if you're going to let somebody tie you up, it better be somebody you trust). She writes in her foreword, "I was drawn to the lovers...I realized I wanted to photograph their delight in each other, mixed with the dark intensity and passion of sadomasochism. I wanted to capture the deep trust that leather couples share." The photos, taken with infrared film that gives her subjects an otherworldly glow, do capture this trust. That being said, however, there are some photos that still made me flinch (especially ones involving hypodermic needles or clothespins on sensitive areas).

Also, the power dynamic of SM, by definition, takes one into some psychologically uncomfortable territory. At first I was disturbed by the photo of a white man dominating a pretty Asian woman, thinking it was just another example of the racist stereotype of the dominant Western man and passive Asian woman. But then when I saw the same couple in another photo, this time with the woman dominating the man, the Madame Butterfly stereotype was turned on its ear, and I began to understand a phrase SM practitioners often use: "the exchange of power."

Nitke includes notes about each photo and its subjects at the book's end. Most of the photographed couples could be your coworkers or neighbors, except that they have allowed you a glimpse into their private lives. As a recent statistic reveals, 10 percent of all couples participate in some kind of SM activity, so SM isn't as on the fringe as some might think.

Kiss of Fire may not offer the vision of romance that Hallmark and Harlequin are selling, and it probably won't show up on the "For Your Valentine" display table at Barnes & Noble. But because of the book's rawness, it shows a more genuine look into the human heart than Hallmark or Harlequin would ever dare. Kiss of Fire would make a fascinating addition to your coffee table. Depending on your company, its presence could either clear the room or start an interesting conversation.