Libido: Reviews: Generation Fetsih

By John Champion

Lee Higgs documents the fetish scene in Chicago and creates images that are truly his own. Instead of the dark, undergound feel of so many other fetish photographers, Higgs uses colors that range from pastels to Crayola-bright, usually caught with the distortion of a fish-eye lens. Added to the strong angles, strong colors and bright, high-contrast images, the models in these photos are young, self-aware, sometimes confrontational and real. His models practice what they preach and they, overwhelmingly female, come across as confident in their embrace of the drama of their sexual play. If anything, it's refreshing to know that in the midwest there is a very-much-alive scene full of Gen-X (and younger) fetishists expressing themselves by pushing the envelope even further.

This thick book is packed almost from cover to cover with images. Very little text is needed in nearly 400 pages, and there's virtually no unused space. Printing is nice with everything in a tactile semi-gloss on heavy paper. If you've been bored by the same, brooding dark images of alternative sexuality, Lee Higgs offers a fresh approach that is very appealing.

From the Publisher
Photography has an important new artist -- a nude photographer of unusual promise. Higgs subjects his models to a surrealistic transformation through camera angles, wide-angle lenses and cross-processing. The resulting images exude the dank atmosphere of the underground. They provoke alienation -- and excitement! Cool, fresh and offensive, his preferred models are young, self-confident, adventurous, and easily bored, seeking kicks in the drama of role-playing: group sex, fetish parties, bondage, lesbianism, and sado-masochism. The text is in English, Deutsch, Francias, Espanol, and Italiano.