An Old And Intimate Friend
No, not the girl, the image:
It’s from a book called Rapture: 13 Erotic Fantasies by Raffaelli. The book dates to 1975, but I got my hands on it when I was about age 14. I obtained it by ordering it, on the strength of the title alone (well, that and the “must be 18 to order” legend), out of a thick remaindered-books mail-order Publisher’s Central Bureau catalog that listed titles by name only in tiny print on cheap pulpy newsprint pages. It was quite literally the best $6.95 I ever spent in my life (plus shipping).
I became, shall we say, somewhat familiar with the images in Rapture. I’d seen Playboy, and I’d seen cheap harder-core porn, but Rapture was the first time I ever saw genuine delight portrayed in an explicit photograph. I shouldn’t be surprised if this very image is primarily responsible for my quasi-fetish for joyous smiles.
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I agree that actual smiles are much more satisfying than the fake rapturous look on so many models. I also moan everytime I see some woman wearing high heels and/or a garter belt to bed.
I try to be careful about alleging that a particular smile is real or fake; it’s like the old joke about sincerity. “Once you learn to fake that, you’ve got it made.” But sometimes, I allow myself to believe in a smile, and this photo is one of those times.
I remember that! I still have it somewhere. I liked his work.
Key to if the smile is fake or genuine… the eyes. Learned that from an old ex-girlfriend. Hers always gave it away.
Oh, and I remember those big cheap-book catalogs as well. Do those companies still exist?
No, I don’t think those mail order book catalogs still exist. They were close to dead when Amazon came along in the late 1990s and ate what was left of their lunch.
Luckily we’re allowed to believe what we want to believe… I’m a sucker for a smile and I believe the smile is real. Maybe the photographer let a fart go?
This is actually from what is for me the least wonderful (though pretty damn wonderful) of Raffaelli’s three books. I have them all and treasure them. My favorite erotic photography — ever — is a sequence of his of a young, very “non-porny” couple engaging sexually mostly in standing positions with expressions of playful loving almost unbearably happy connection, but with the addition of their two faces hovering above them in each shot in wonder and amusement.
Of course I had to Google him. From what I read, it seems likely that the couple were friends of his. They probably popped ’round, smoked some weed and got down to it. One time a female friend of his acquaintance got naked with a male child of his acquaintance to satisfy the child’s curiosity about the female body (that curiosity was causing inappropriate behaviour in public). Raffaelli photographed the event and landed in trouble with the law for child pornography. Apparently, though, the treatment worked wonders.
Why does the girl in the picture remind me of Audrey Hollander?
I think there is a rich seam of discovery to be made thinking about the impact of early porn images to what really makes ones heart throb over.
Such companies are still around; for example, try Hamilton Books (http://www.hami....com/) or Daedalus (http://www.daed....com/). The catalog isn’t on newsprint any more — glossy paper, in actual color! — but there are still lots of remainders for sale. Erotica is generally under Fiction.
Ron Rappaelli may be best known for his photographs of rock legends (such as the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and The Doors). When it comes to erotic photos, it seems as though Rappaelli prefers to work with couples who actually LIKE each other.
An interesting account of the Raffaelli controversy mentioned by commenter JohnJ, can be found here:
http://www.near....html
Perhaps an even more interesting account, can be found towards the end of the article, about some problems encountered by one of his contemporaries, Michael Rosen (of Sexual Magic fame…), regarding depictions of bondage being constrained within prison walls. Here’s my favorite quote: “Think about that: bondage being prohibited in prison. Now, that’s what I call surreal! On the other hand, if schoolchildren are being taught the difference between good touch and bad touch, I suppose it’s only one step further down the road to teach prisoners the difference between good bondage (what the state does to people as punishment) and bad bondage (what people do to each other for pleasure).”