It feels good to get back on your feet, to have time for yourself, time to create. Finally, the 57th Project L is here!
The photoshoot itself was delayed multiple times, due to multiple reasons; personal exhaustment, ill dog, excess work, broken car and all the sorts. But it was worth the wait, at least in my personal opinion.
Let me introduce you to a new local model, Vanja. She’s the vocalist for a local band, MartYriuM, which plays, according to their Facebook page, blackened industrial death metal and beyond.
Because I’ve been working so damn much since I’ve moved to Malta, and because my trusty van, which we drove here from Finland, had a broken bearing, I really haven’t experienced the country I’ve moved in properly. Because Vanja lives half the country away, I had to drive to Marsaskala, to the furthest eastern part of the small island of Malta we’re currently residing at.
But then again, it’s a bit silly to drive half across the whole country and still be there in 30 minutes. I used to live further away from my school back in Finland, and travel that distance five days a week!
We started off from Vanja’s house, a beautiful place decorated with great skill. It reminded me of a true gothic fairy tale and was a great place to shoot at, as the whole house inspired me to great levels.
Man. That house was awesome.
After sucking in the inspiration of the beautiful fairy tale home and hanging around with snakes around the neck, we headed off to see the central of Marsaskala, at the tip of Marsaskala Bay.
Maltese people do stare, and it is quite obvious – although they’re not as impolite as one could imagine; Vanja told me of her experiences of choosing to be different, of choosing to wear what’s not really considered as “normal”, and even though people do stare, they’re usually not that impolite about it. Staring is just that – staring.
Let people stare, be who you are and love what you’re doing.
What’s rather unusual for my models, Vanja had worn latex before, and actually owns quite a few pieces of latex clothing, too. She had never worn a latex catsuit before, though, but was very excited to try one out. And, according to her, she’s now probably going to get one of her own.
Project L works in mysterious ways.
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As usual, the behind the scenes and outtakes – with a video – will be released few days later. Or a week later. Depends on how I really can arrange my time again. Don’t forget to check back, and if you haven’t seen the rest of everything, remember to check the previous Project Ls.
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Latex used in the project:
Black Princess Catsuit Libidex
Wonderful pictures. Thank you, Tuomas
another stunning set of pictures thanks xx
Impressive Photography Skills! Also loved reading your text!
I see true Art in these photos! True photography skills and the model is simply amazing.
I checked out her band and although it’s not my usual type of music, I can say that I really enjoyed hearing their songs and watching their videos, especially the live shows. I’m feeling inspired by her!
Bravo, some fresh photography coming out of Malta. I always wait with anticipation of the next set. Great to see a different model not that I am suggesting in the slightest that the other young ladies are in any way getting boring!
Good to have a variety. I am with just the one at the moment and struggling to find more interested in latex.
Hey Thomas,
I have some really mixed feelings about this shoot. Let me explain: A year or three ago, you did a shoot which ended with a straightjacket under a shower. Back then, under a different pseudonym, I mentioned that those photos crossed the line from high fashion into fetishism and kink.
This shoot gives me the same feeling. A lot. There is a very fetishistic vibe by the way she poses and how she wears combat boots and a collar in public. It’s against the message of trying to promote latex in a general, fashionable way. It’s in strong contrast with other shoots, who often involve daily things like shopping and commuting.
Mind you, I don’t criticise fetishism and BDSM subculture. I also wear combat boots, latex, and a collar when insisted on by a partner. But that’s not something that will win the hearts and minds of the general public.
Your work is really good, and I like how you have developed yourself over the last three or so years. This just happens to be one case I disagree.
Hi John, and thanks again for your feedback – it’s greatly appreciated!
I feel that Vanja being who she is mattered more than the artistic direction of Project L. As far as I know, the collar has nothing to do with ownership to her, but is moreover a fashion statement, like her other clothes. Nobody’s insisted her to do anything, but she did this of her own will – because that’s everyday life and everyday clothing for her. Of course I understand what you mean and where you’re coming from, but I don’t want to censor my models or limit what they want to show of their lives.
Usually I never really dress my models in any ways, usually I just present the latex clothes available and make suggestions on what they could perhaps wear besides latex, but I almost always give the last choice on clothing for the model, as their choice often resembles the choices they make in their everyday life.
It might be the line you draw. If the collar were locked on, for example, or some kind of constraint actually applied through it, it would move from symbolic to actual bondage – if anything, the absence of that constraint says the opposite, that she dresses that way for her taste and potential pleasure.
It is even possible that you might need to create at least three different degrees of bondage, consensual/consenting, compliant, and compelled: and whether all three are actual bondage is a moot point too, to be bound does not necessarily mean to be enslaved. The sense of bondage is the bond, which is not what it might seem etymologically, a bond is a legal/symbolic document where the serf’s normal autonomous freedom of choice is removed, they are compelled to comply, like it or not. You could consider a distinction between soft and hard bondage, therefore, returning slightly more towards the other sense of the word, binding, where the soft end is consensual, and the hard, where it is opposed, either physically or spiritually.
The message I get from the imagery is that binding is on the table, however it’s at the loosest of the soft end and only with consent: the degree is a matter of accord, and most likely only accepted if the partner is also bound. To see a couple tied together might create a new genre of erotic photography, which is really not what the point is here, however.
Similarly, there are differences in viewpoint. A woman wears a bra to support her breasts, which are erotically sensitive, so there’s a scale starting already between comfort and sensuality. Once one starts on that journey, at what point does it become erotic? When the bra becomes a corset? That takes the simple closure of the clothing up a level. And yet I’ve never yet heard of a zip fetish, or a button perv. That’s a question each must answer for themselves. The sensuality of slowly removing the garment, perhaps, as part of foreplay verging on striptease? To the guy, it’s loss physically erotic than it is to the gal.
And so I might continue, carefully sketching lines where we each find we move from the day to day to the sensual. The point of the meme is that they want to stay on the day to day side of the line, that even though it might be possible to find an erotic use for almost anything – a paintbrush, say, or a doormat – the temptation here is the tease, not going there – yet. And even that’s slightly too far for the meme: to the purist, it’s simply clothing. Honi soit qui mal y pense, it’s somewhat how you look at it. Perhaps the answer is for those who don’t see the difference to try it for themselves, get a catsuit and wear it for a day. You can’t stay aroused that long, so you get past that experience and start to appreciate it as clothing. How the dressing aid, lube or talc, starts to dissipate, so there’s a period when it starts to stick rather uncomfortably until sweat takes over. That’s far easier in Malta, of course. And that can be intensely unerotic. See my drift?