VLASTIMIL KULA
Taschen

Taschen have a long and admirable tradition of publishing envelope-pushing erotic books, the sumptuous nature of the publication matched by the explicitness and intensity of the imagery they contained. There has always been a certain irony in the fact that while hardcore porn remained ostensibly illegal in the UK, you could walk into a high street book store and see highly graphic photographs in books by Jeff Koons, Araki, Roy Stuart and others.

This fine tradition is continued in the latest Taschen book, a collection of photo-sets by Czech lensman Vlastimil Kula. The work aims to defeat what Kula refers to as "the boredom of pornography" - in other words, mechanical sex that simply goes through the motions. At the same time, he also seeks to blur the boundaries between art, reportage and porn.

The book takes on one of the conventions of porn magazines by splitting itself into various 'chapters', where a scenario - 'story' seems too precise a word - is played out between the models and - often - the photographer himself. These images are certainly explicit - you'll see plenty of hard-ons and penetration - but have a playful nature to them. There is a blurring of boundaries between 'reality' and 'fantasy' as images move from erotic poses to what would under any other circumstance be seen as 'behind-the-scenes' candid shots with the models and Kula himself. It's this lack of contrivance that makes the work stand out.

Kula's photographic style won't be to everyone's taste, and certainly doesn't lend itself to porno fantasy, being shadowy, often quite unfocused black and white, with ultra-close-ups regularly reducing the body to a system of contours. But it works because it has an honesty about it - these photographs look like snapshots from a private sex party, and as such are considerably more arresting than any generic porn mag shots. Which I guess is the idea.

Vlastimil Kula is another classic erotic book from Taschen - beautifully reproduced, stylish and cool enough for you to leave it lying around when visitors call.

DAVID FLINT

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