“Back in the 1980s I bought a book, The Dark Summer by Bob Carlos Clarke, and that changed pretty much immediately what I wanted to shoot. His monochrome prints of models in latex were such a stunning visual treat. The thin rubber fits like a second skin, enhancing natural physical attributes: a corset and Wonderbra all in one! 

Many models find it liberating too, in terms of posing for the camera. Turning the everyday into a nightmare/fantasy/hero/villain. It can be very stylized, but the various outfits can be as revealing as you dare, or completely covered if you wish. For example, in a catsuit zipped up to the neck, you can be extreme and extravagant in your posing, safe in the knowledge there is not going to be an accidental flash of flesh.

I am looking to try and do something a little different each time. I think that’s important in order to satisfy my own creative needs. Doing the same thing over and over would get a little boring, and I felt I had got to that point with high-key shots of black latex a while back. I aim to create something provocative, but that doesn’t mean it has to be overt. There is far more intrigue in what you don’t see over what is actually revealed. The viewer has an imagination and has the potential to project that onto the image too.

There is a fair amount of prep work in getting outfits ready for shooting. Cleaning, polishing, more polishing… it takes time. Then there’s dressing the model, with catsuits being the most challenging to get into. But over the years I have become a dab hand with gloves and stockings and I sure know how to lace up a corset!

During the shoot itself, you have to keep an eye out for bits of fluff, or stray hairs sticking to the latex clothing. The polished rubber also clearly creates a reflective surface, and lighting set-ups can often be seen in the darker-pigment garments. Modifiers are certainly identifiable and occasionally even the photographer – camera in hand – can be glimpsed.

I prefer the studio environment. Setting a background, adding props and the flexibility of controllable lighting, as well as an adjustable room temperature, makes for a very productive session. External location shoots not only rely on our very changeable weather cooperating, but also an element of ‘crowd control’ as a latex-clad dominatrix in eight-inch heels is certain to draw attention! 

The first Nikons I ever had in my hands were FM and F3 film cameras. These days, I stick with a D3 and D3x DSLRs, with a set of primes: 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.4 and a 105mm f/2.8. There is also the Holy Trinity of zooms: 14-24mm, 24-70mm and the 70-200mm – all f/2.8, of course. It would be reasonable to say that the 24-70mm sees the most action, but the 14-24mm can create wonderful exaggerated frames, shot either from on high looking down, or right at ground level aiming up a heel and leg”. 

About Andrew Macdonald

Andrew Macdonald runs Killer Heels Photography and won the Best Photographer category at the UK Fetish awards for the third time in 2023. See more of his work on Facebook, Instagram and X.

Lydia Goldblatt describes her book Fugue as a “story about mothering and losing a mother, intimacy and distance, told through photographs and writing”. It is a companion volume, in some ways, to an earlier project, Still Here, about the unsettled, intense landscape of love and loss generated by her father’s death. “The cultural silence around these emotions,” Goldblatt writes, by way of introduction, “the difficulty of navigating and giving voice to them, has made me want to suffuse them with colour and light.”

The pictures in Fugue were made over four years, beginning in 2020. The world of some of them is circumscribed by lockdown, life narrowing to the bubble of family. The photographer’s young daughters are insistently present in the pictures, climbing and clinging and needing notice. “Abundant” is her word for them. Her mother is already an absence; the words in the book chart not only her loss but also the responsibility of clearing and decanting her London home.

Goldblatt and her partner, as here, seem to exist halfway between those two states; wearied by care and by reflection, not as corporeal as their children. When Goldblatt first became a mother, a few years earlier, she was suddenly unable to take pictures at all, caring was “so much that it was too much”. It was only when her mother died that she wanted to pick up a camera again, to find a visual language honest to “feelings of claustrophobia and rage as much as intimacy and love”. She worked on medium-format film, often waiting appropriate months for those images and those emotions to be processed. Fugue indicates both a brief snatch of musical harmony, and in psychiatry, a sudden loss of awareness of identity. Both meanings seem fitting for the forthcoming exhibition of Goldblatt’s pictures and the subsequent book.

• Fugue is published by Gost (£45) in June. An exhibition of the photographs, with Robert Morat Galerie, will be on display at Photo London 2024, Somerset House, 16-19 May

The encampment on Cornell’s Arts Quad has now continued for almost 72 hours. Here’s some of what The Sun has seen on the third day.

RAPID CITY, SD – The Rapid City Arts Council is thrilled to announce the upcoming Emerging Visual Artist exhibition, “WICOWOYAKE ITOWAPI UN OYAKAPI Photographic Storytelling,” featuring artwork from the Boys and Girls Club of Rosebud and Five Corners Collective. The exhibition will debut with an opening reception on May 3 at the Bruce H. Lien Cultural Café & Gallery located at the Dahl Arts Center. One of the highlights of the exhibition is a stunning 31-foot-long and 10-foot-wide visual representation of a Lakota kinship circle embracing technology.

For the past six years, Lakota youth from the Boys & Girls Club of Rosebud have collaborated with teaching artists from Five Corners Collective to share their stories through photography. These captivating artworks offer a unique perspective into their lives and cultural heritage. Through innovative portraiture, the young artists invite viewers to delve into their identities and values. The exhibition explores themes of the celestial realm, drawing from the ancient wisdom of Lakota Star Knowledge, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of earthly and cosmic elements, shaping traditional beliefs and guiding meaningful lives. This showcase reimagines storytelling, transforming narratives into catalysts for profound societal reflection and transformation.

Five Corners Collective, a non-profit teaching and exhibition collective, was founded by graduates of the Hartford Art School’s MFA program in photography. Their mission is to impart the love of photography and visual storytelling to others. The Collective partners with community groups to teach photography skills, empowering individuals to tell their own stories. They then collaborate with these groups to create opportunities for members to share their stories locally and beyond.

The Boys & Girls Club of Rosebud plays a vital role in the community, providing mentoring, sports, scouting, academic tutoring, and arts education to children and teens residing on the Rosebud Reservation. The club helps young individuals develop essential skills, resilience, and self-confidence, nurturing them to become healthy young adults. Annually, the club serves around 300 youth aged five to eighteen.

Established in 2013, the Emerging Visual Artists (EVA) Program by the Rapid City Arts Council supports visual artists venturing into gallery exhibitions for the first time. The RCAC’s education staff guides artists through the entire process, from selecting works to receiving critiques, pricing, writing statements, and creating and promoting exhibits. The program accepts EVA proposals from individual artists and groups throughout the year and is currently accepting applications for the 2025 exhibition calendar.

The Emerging Visual Artists program is a rotating exhibition proudly supported by local donors and presented by the Rapid City Arts Council. For more information or to apply as a participating artist, please visit rapidcityartscouncil.org or contact education@thedahl.org.

As a follow up to my article on the best advice in respect of turning pro, I thought it would be fun to dig into the worst advice we’ve ever received as photographers. As Oscar Wilde wrote, “one might consider always passing on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.” So, what’s some of the worst photography advice you’ve ever received?

Jeffrey Garriock: Pro Bono Does Indeed Have Value

Photographer and cinematographer Jeffrey Garriock (who I work with at G Adventures as a photo guide) was quick to point out that the worst advice he’s ever been given: “don’t do anything for free.” As much as Garriock champions the value of photography, he’s still of the opinion that there’s a time and place to work for free. Garriock told me that he’s done some wonderful work for NGOs when no money exchanged hands. What else are you going to do when you believe in the work that’s being done and there is truly no money to go around? Related, these experiences afforded Garriock the incredible opportunities to shoot the type of stories he wants to be involved in. The experience he gained on these pro bono shoots has in turn improved his marketability when a related paid job comes along. Pro bono photography has resulted in Garriock working and connecting with like-minded people, helping to amplify certain voices, and improving his skills in ways he might not have been able to otherwise. 

Michelle Valberg: Don’t Rest on Your Laurels

Michelle Valberg, Nikon ambassador and stellar wildlife photographer, was once told that if you achieve success within the first five years, you’re guaranteed long-term success. Today, Valberg would be the first to point out that sustained success in photography requires ongoing dedication, adaptability, and the ability to navigate a constantly changing industry. A drive for success should not be limited to a specific timeframe but should instead be viewed as a continuous journey of growth and evolution. In the end, it is your entire body of work that will define your photographic success, not your first victory.

John and Veronica Park: Story Over Gear

For wedding photographers John and Veronica Park, the omnipresent narrative and online marketing that constantly suggests that the latest and most advanced equipment is a prerequisite for exemplary work is the worst advice they’ve ever received. Contrary to this belief, while contemporary tools might streamline processes or expedite tasks, they are by no means necessary for achieving excellence. The Parks exercise discretion in updating their equipment. They opt to upgrade only when the new gear addresses specific requirements or offers efficiency gains that are significant enough to substantially benefit their workflow.

Trevor Sherwin: No Short Cuts / One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Trevor Sherwin of boudoir studio Provocateur Images told me that listening to the one-size-fits-all approach from people who sell you marketing solutions is far and away the worst advice he’s ever heard. Sure, you can buy a modicum of success, but rarely do those plans ever work the way you need them to. There is a whole ecosystem out there that knows photographers will buy a get-rich-quick type solution. Of course, there are a handful of instances where this works, but, for the rest, it’s bad advice that will take you away from the task of building your business in a bespoke and sustainable way.

Aris Apostolopoulos: Look Outside Of Golden Hour

Aris Apostolopoulos, another photography guide I work with at G Adventures, was quick to point to a very common piece of advice as the worst he’s ever received: “the best light for landscape photography is during golden hour.” For Apostolopoulos, this limits photographers too much. For example, if you want to convey a dramatic feeling with your images, Apostolopoulos suggests that maybe it might be better to take a photo during midday with strong light, creating high contrast between shadows and highlights. Everything doesn’t have to be golden.

Related, Apostolopoulos was also told that the best portrait light comes from a soft box. Again, it depends on what you’re trying to achieve. You have to choose between the soft light of a soft box or the harsh light of a direct flash depending on the mood you’re looking to convey.

Apostolopoulos wanted to make it clear, there is not a “best light” in photography, but there is the best light in relation to what you want to achieve.

Esteban Toro: Put Your Name Behind Your Values

Early in his career, travel photographer and Sony Ambassador, Esteban Toro was told that it didn’t matter so much if you identified with a brand. If you were asked to represent a brand, you should jump at the chance for exposure and a payday. For Toro, this was terrible advice that he’s glad he didn’t act on. Instead, Toro chose to represent a camera manufacturer that wasn’t very popular, at the time. Had he followed this advice and started representing another more popular brand that did not align with his values, his career would have been entirely different. For Toro, the lesson is clear: always be honest with yourself and only represent companies that align with your values. 

Mike Gere: Maybe There Is No Such Thing As Bad Advice

I work with Mike Gere at Frontiers North Adventures as a photography guide. Gere also runs Jasper Photo Tours. We have a lot of time to chat away the evenings as we’re waiting for the aurora borealis to come out and put on a show for our guests. Gere gave me a bit of a different answer that I’d like to conclude with. Gere explained that he couldn’t think of any truly bad advice.

There was nothing that Gere had been told or taught that he regretted learning. Even the bad advice taught him a lesson. Gere considers himself a collection of guidance he’s learned from the good advice he’s received and the lessons he’s learned from the bad advice and the mistakes of others.  

I’m a collection of other people’s lessons and mistakes.

The trick here would be to know what advice to take at face value and what advice to learn from without acting on. It’s a special skill to recognize what advice you shouldn’t go too far down the road with as your companion.

What about you? What’s the worst advice you’ve ever received?

All images provided by and attributed to the credited photographer. Lead image provided by Jeffrey Garriock.

Disconnected in its genesis, conceptual, fine art, and journalistic work, from Weegee to Guanyu Xu, from Samuel Fosso to Gerda Taro, gives life to a myriad of echoes and a cross-section of influences that take the viewer through crucial moments of the recent American and world history.

In their monochrome starkness, Diana Matar’s images of modern America possess a melancholic undertow that is both familiar and unsettling. Whether a deserted backroad fringed with sun-burnished grass in rural Texas or a single-storey liquor store in a sprawling Californian suburb, there is the sense that these often nondescript places are not where locals tend to linger, never mind gather to mourn and to remember.

And yet the 110 photographs in her new book, My America, are of sites where civilians were killed by law enforcement officers across Texas, California, Oklahoma and New Mexico in 2015 and 2016. “I chose those four states because Texas and California are where most people die in encounters with law enforcement,” she says, “while Oklahoma and New Mexico have the highest per capita deaths. I would have liked to have photographed in other places like Chicago and Georgia, but I simply ran out of money.”

The book’s cumulative impact, though, lies not in the number of images she has made, but in their haunted ordinariness. They evoke an America devoid of the romance of road movies and travelogues, an altogether more mundane landscape of homogenous suburbs, functional civic buildings, concrete churches, motels and apartments. Here and there, the continent’s vastness and elemental beauty is glimpsed, but mostly Matar homes in on the local, often mundane, settings in which many of the fatal encounters took place. Each image is accompanied by the victim’s name, the year of their birth and death, and the location. Towards the end of the book, she includes an explanation of her research methodology and a longer description of the circumstances that led to each killing.

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“My work is essentially about memory and violence,” she tells me, “and the question I am constantly trying to answer is, what does the land hold? What can it tell us? I like to think I am able to glean something from the landscapes and locations where terrible violence has occurred, maybe even feel something tangible in these places, but this project definitely challenged that. Again and again, I made images in places where I didn’t feel what happened there in any palpable way.”

What she often found instead was that the mundane nature of the locations overwhelmed everything else. She visited more than 300 sites on her journeys, but only seven had any kind of memorial. “It was as if these places only held meaning for the people closely connected to the victim,” she says. “That there was often no collective acknowledgment may simply reflect our increasingly individualistic American culture or it could be that these kinds of killings have become almost commonplace in some states. Either way, it was unsettling for me. In one sense, the book, as its title suggests, is also about an America that I grew up in and that I was seeing anew.”

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Matar was raised in Santa Clara County in California and is a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London. She has made several bodies of work around the themes of history, memory and state-sponsored violence, most notably her acclaimed 2014 project, Evidence, for which she travelled to Libya to photograph the sites in which people were assassinated or disappeared by Colonel Gaddafi’s secret police. One of the disappeared was her father-in-law, Jaballa Matar. She was accompanied on the trip by her husband, the writer Hisham Matar, and his mother. In a feature Hisham Matar subsequently wrote for the New Yorker, he noted: “Diana works with great fidelity. Once she gets hold of a thread, she will follow it until the end.” That remains the case.

The images in My America were made after several years of deep research into police killings in America in which she drew on several online databases on the subject, including the Guardian’s long-form investigation, The Counted. She made six trips across the four states, each one lasting around three weeks. Travelling alone by car across often vast distances, she found herself quickly abandoning her usual way or working. “In the past, I’d shoot at dusk when the light was at its most atmospheric, but the distances I had to cover were so daunting, I’d often start photographing at 6am and continue somewhere else at midday, when the light was harshest, because I wanted to reach where I was staying before dark.”

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All the photographs in the book were made on an iPhone 6 rather than her usual Hasselblad. “It just suited the subject matter,” she explains, “not least because we really became aware of these killings when they started to be documented on camera phones by people who witnessed them.”

Inevitably, the myriad nondescript sites Matar has documented are foreshadowed by the now infamous police killings that spawned the collective anger and activism of the Black Lives Matter movement. While the names of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Ahmaud Armory and Breaona Taylor may well echo through history, the majority of the victims in Matar’s latest book of evidence remain unknown and unmourned except by those closest to them. That perhaps is the saddest subtext of this haunting – and haunted – book of evidence.

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In her introduction, Matar asks a question that has preoccupied her throughout her working life: “Can photographs bear the burden of history?” I ask her if making My America has helped her find an answer. After some thought, she says: “I think that societies must bear the burden of history and laws must be enacted in order for that to happen. But photography, or writing, or indeed any creative endeavour that looks closely and deeply at an issue, is an act of acute attentiveness that is essentially saying, this matters.”

She pauses again. “Personally, I don’t have any illusions that this work will change anything, but by doing it I am insisting that what has happened to every one of these people really does really matter. It matters because the past isn’t gone. I know that, not just from my work, but from my own experience. I know what happens when someone is lost to the state. It impacts generations.”

• My America is published by GOST Books (£50). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

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