Unframed
Schlomer Haus Gallery is thrilled to debut SKINTIGHT, a new solo show by Indigenous Queer
photographer Lanee Bird.
SKINTIGHT is the first solo exhibition of Bird’s fetish work spanning between 2019 and 2022. Drawing influence from the likes of Helmut Newton and Robert Mapplethorpe in a nod to 80s/ 90s aesthetics, she breaks away from the male dominated tradition of fetish photography to divert the gaze into queer femme worship. Her work continues to magnify the eroticism of fetish materials through light, posture and distortion.
Through her photography she reveals the intersections of fine art, fashion and fetishism. A self proclaimed dyke and pervert, she uses her camera to distort aesthetics into the erotic. Latex, leather, fishnets and nylons are restrictive materials that objectify the body throughout her photographs. The process of creating her work becomes fetishistic by nature through the voyeurism of the camera and the meticulous study of her subjects as fetish objects. Models are posed in contorted positions to create a pointed focus on the curves of a body, the spike of a high heel or to simply revel in the hyper femininity of fetishwear as a second skin.
Many of her subjects are sex workers, dominatrixes and kink models. While SKINTIGHT is an exploration of Bird’s personal obsessions of fetishism, this exhibition of photographs also serves as a celebration of her friends and peers within the BDSM community.
Lanee Bird is an indigenous queer photographer, colorist and video editor based between Los Angeles and New York City.
