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Photographic exhibition to demystify BDSM expression

Announcement posted by Inlumino Communications 04 Feb 2016

BDSM, opening at Sydney’s Black Eye Gallery in March 2016 as part of Art Month, features 16 engaging and intimate portraits of very diffe
rent BDSM practitioners.

Through these portraits, fine art and advertising photographer Simon Bernhardt is attempting to dispel the stereotypes that surround BDSM (bondage, discipline, dominance, submission and sadomasochism) and tell the story of ordinary people at ease in their skin or behind their masks. BDSM will open just 2 days before Sydney’s Mardi Gras Festival, matching the theme of everyday people exploring their own sexual identity.

 “There is a certain misconception associated with BDSM – that practitioners are somehow perverted and guilty of abhorrent fetishes. BDSM showcases practitioners on a journey of sexual discovery, while allowing people to learn more about how they came to be excited by things outside “mainstream” sexual expression,” said Bernhardt.

Accompanying the exhibition, is a limited edition book allowing the Australian public to learn more about how each subject came to be involved and influenced in the BDSM scene. First person accounts of their experiences and journeys, which avoid objectification and allow a fresh insight into a community that most people have little understanding of.
BDSM seeks to celebrate and document these participants and their unique sexual identities by breaking taboos and misunderstandings about what we think goes on behind closed doors.  
 
BDSM
By Simon Bernhardt
3rd – 17th March, 2016
Black Eye Gallery, 3/138 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst
Opening night: 6pm, Thursday 3rd of March, 2016.
 
#Ends
   
Images attached (higher resolution images available on request):
  • BDSM Simon Bernhardt Subject 1, 4, 15, 16
 Photo/Interview Opportunity:
Simon Bernhardt is available for interview and photo opportunities by appointment.
 
About Simon Bernhardt:
Simon Bernhardt is an advertising, editorial and fine art photographer based in Sydney, Australia. Whilst studying Fine Arts Photography and Media at the University of Technology, Sydney, Bernhardt worked as a freelance photographic assistant for some of the top fashion, advertising and fine art photographers, internationally and in Australia. Soon after, this led to Bernhardt taking on his own photographic commissions for magazines and advertising agencies.
 
In 2010 his first photographic publication was released entitled Polaroid Holiday, reflecting his creative obsession with the Polaroid format and capturing studies of stark urban alienation.
This exhibition and book tour, travelled over the next three-year period.
 
Bernhardt then continued to explore his fascination with the minutiae of the urban wilderness throughout Europe and Australia. This resulted in his second photographic publication, released in 2012 entitled Square Scapes, dedicated to his friend and mentor the great Australian painter Jeffrey Smart.
 
In 2014 his third photographic publication and exhibition ‘Gateway’ sparked serious political and cultural debate throughout Australia. It featured sixteen contemporary portraits of cannabis users that attempted to dispel stereotypes, while debating whether cannabis is really a gateway drug and its possible future legalisation for medical and recreational purposes in Australia. The exhibition and limited edition book release also aimed to eliminate any emotion from the sensitive subject of illegal drug use. These portraits engage with the human face of each subject’s personal story behind their cannabis use.
 
www.simonbernhardt.com
  
Media enquiries: Samuel Spurr ph. 0438 501 005, sam@inlumino.com.au