Sexual Magic

Review by M. MOTEN for Sexual Magic
Rating:
Michael Rosen does NOT make “pretty” pictures, though is images are exquisitely beautiful. His work isn’t “erotic” in the mainstream sense, despite having spent nearly 30 years photographing sexuality. His images don’t attempt to be “sensual” and definitely not “sexy,” answering to a more specific, perhaps even higher calling. His stark, unadorned black and white images indulge in none of the technical or conceptual pretense that most viewers want/need to reconcile their attraction to nudity and sexuality in art. Rosen eschews the common vocabulary of erotic art — soft focus, digital enhancement, pictorial stagecraft, cyber-gothic symbolism, et.al. – which has little or no place in his vision, serving only as buffers and cushions between us and the meaning driving his work…the kind of protection from the real that Rosen has no interest in.Though his photographs are often dismissed as “porn” by the easily upset, Rosen could actually never exist in the world of mainstream commercial pornography, which is basically advertising carried to it’s natural extreme. It’s about selling a fantasy…the idea that one’s frowsy next door neighbor could turn out to be the “Horny Housewife” on her way over to borrow a cup of sugar. Rosen’s world is no fantasy; in fact the sheer reality of his images is what puts many viewers off. In a world where more and more of us are coming to believe that sexuality is only for the beautiful few, Rosen’s scenes of real people being so unashamedly sexual with one another can look positively alien. Rosen’s subjects are normal people that any of us could know – what makes them extraordinary is the manner in which they gain access to their own desires and pleasures, and the fact that they’re brave enough to entrust that part of themselves to Rosen and his camera, almost always with striking and harshly beautiful results. His work isn’t for everyone, but to those who can find their way into his intimate, passionately honest otherworld, Rosen is a very special artist – perhaps one of a kind.Originally published in 1986, “Sexual Magic: the S/M Photographs” takes us on a fast-paced but thoughtful journey through the many worlds of BDSM “play.” We see men with men, women with women, men and women dominating and being dominated. Rosen’s journalistic approach gives the images an intensity and resonance that the work of more “famous” erotic photographers can’t even touch. Rosen includes eloquent, even spiritual written passages contributed by his subjects that reveal even more of what S/M is truly about. Most amazing is Rosen’s gift for capturing the moment when his subjects totally immerse in the worlds their words describe. Bodies arched and tensed with sensation, faces etched in anticipation, release and even trust. The true beauty of Rosen’s photographs is in the way his subjects give so openly – to each other, to Rosen and to us if we’re willing to accept and understand the nature of their gift.