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Click any image to view the
pop-up gallery slide show. Serchuk took a few moments to chat with Eros Zine about her work.
Michele Serchuk: I started shooting this work about a decade ago. My then boyfriend and I decided to quit griping about the fact that for the most part, commercially available erotic imagery did not thrill us. There was a dearth of aesthetically pleasing imagery out there which pleased us to look at AND which spoke to us personally. He started shooting me; I started writing stories about things I'd experienced and wondered about, and the things my friends and I were discussing. As a photographic subject and writer the work asked, "Who am I, what do I think about sex, what's my response to what I'm reading, encountering, experiencing?" With my ex's and my dad's encouragement I began photographing the women around me, my friends. The photography became an exploration of the external, "Who are you, what makes you tick?" Of course learning about "you" always teaches me about "me", too. I am fascinated by sexuality and eroticism, and how it manifests differently in each of us; it excites me to find touchstones of joy, beauty and passion in sexual expression. It fascinates me to find clues to my subjects' identity in their erotic expression. Within the first year the work had evolved into erotic portraiture and had become so all consuming that I lost interest in writing the stories at all. My subjects and I collaborate on creating images that capture a visual manifestation of some aspect of their own eroticism, sensuality, sexuality, fetishes, desires and relationships. Some images are explicit, some are not, some are kinky, some are not; it all depends on my subject and where we can go together creatively. When I can capture that aspect of identity, emotion, experience, when I can frame it and compose it in such a way that my subjects recognize themselves and the viewer can share some piece of that experience, then I am thrilled. Eros Zine: Do you have a primary interest in what you're trying to communicate with your work, or does it vary with the project? Michele Serchuk: I am always trying to communicate, that never varies; exactly what that is changes with each project and each of my subjects. In general, I want to share what I've seen in my subject; I want to share her beauty, and whatever she's expressing to my camera about her erotic experience. That intent is always behind the work. If I can capture her well enough that the viewer has a glimpse inside of the moment, I'm happy; if I can further inspire the viewer to feel some resonance and recognize some aspect of self in the image or question some previously unexamined assumption about sexuality, I'm thrilled. Eros Zine: Most of your works show a gentle kind of eroticism, but the occasional shot has a much more charged, fetishy feel. When you get something erotically charged out of a photo, is it usually something you're looking for, or does it just happen during the shoot? Does it depend on the model, the mood, your technique...?
Also, I think that charge can happen in my vanilla work as well as my kinkier imagery. So long as the right elements are in place, that potential is there. Eros Zine: One of your portfolio shots is titled in part "Infrared Candle." Are you working with infrared photography at all or is that just a title? Michele Serchuk: I was playing around with infrared film for a bit. It's neat stuff but I haven't worked with it for quite a while. Eros Zine: One of the best things about your work is the intensity with which you can capture a kiss. Is there a special technique to photographing couples kissing, or does it just happen? Michele Serchuk: Yes, find two people who really want to kiss each other! Seriously, I love shooting kisses. I love shooting couples. When my subjects have chemistry working between them often all I have to do is mentally click into their rhythm and shapes and start shooting. To me, kissing is very sexy and intimate; it can convey a great deal about the emotion and connection between two people. Eros Zine: Does there have to be chemistry between the two models, or can it be imagined by the viewer? Michele Serchuk: For my personal work there has to be chemistry. I prefer to shoot real couples, or at least people who have expressed a desire to explore some kind of erotic experience together on camera.
Eros Zine: One of your most memorable models is your partner, who appears in some of your most powerful photographs. Is there a different technique to capturing a male vs. a female figure in an erotic or sensual context? Michele Serchuk: For me, shooting erotic work with men and women really is different. If I'm working with a solo subject rather than a couple I prefer to work with women. While women aren't all alike, and not all men are "from Mars", women often share some level of common experience around sexuality and eroticism, and I find that makes communication and thus collaboration easier. Women are also socialized differently than men, and part of that socialization includes an internalized consciousness of themselves as visual objects. We learn how to flirt, how to seduce, how to express ourselves with a visual language of gesture. Usually this extends to the ways in which we take erotic pleasure in embellishing our bodies with shoes, clothes, makeup, hair. It's all communication and expression, and that works really well for photos. With solo male subjects I often find they become physically mute before a camera, which makes collaboration much harder for me. My work with DeLano is an exception to this rule. I'd like to claim it's all me but it's not; partly it's him, partly it's our relationship, partly it's that we share certain creative interests. DeLano is different because of what he brings to the set. He is comfortable in his skin, with his body, and has a complex language of physical gesture. He has an innate desire to convey his internal experience physically in a way that can be communicated to and understood by the viewer. This makes us great collaborative partners. And, the fact that we are partners in life adds depth to the rapport we have in our creative dynamic. Eros Zine: Does creating photographs together have an effect on your relationship? Does working together creatively prove challenging at times? Michele Serchuk: Working together has greatly enhanced our relationship. It has provided a venue for sharing experiences we might otherwise not be able to, and for learning about each other. Doing this work together has also helped us each define what we want in our creative explorations as well as what is important to us as a couple. So far it has not been stressful to our relationship, although finding appropriate people to work with has been a challenge.
Michele Serchuk: Usually they're friends or acquaintances who are familiar with my work and express a desire to shoot with me, or they come referred by previous or current subjects of mine. Every now and then I receive a query from a stranger who wants to shoot, some of whom I've worked with, others not; some people are just not appropriate subjects for my work, but I have met some really cool people this way. It's important that we share some common creative goals and an aesthetic sensibility, that they be geographically accessible (I don't have a travel budget for shooting), and that they be willing to wait until we both have time. Eros Zine: You've also done some great work with Midori, a fetish icon, and yet at least one of your most powerful images of her shows her in a moment of abandon without explicit sexuality or fetishism. Is there a certain perversity to that for you? Michele Serchuk: First of all, I don't think powerful erotic imagery always needs to be explicit; there can be a lot of erotic energy in more subtle expressions. As far as my work with Midori goes, it does make me happy to be able to work with her on a more personal level that goes beyond the usually more limited vocabulary of fetish imagery. I think our friendship has provided a fertile common ground from which we can explore both as artists and as intellectually geeky, hedonistic, sexually empowered women. However, Midori and I did shoot one intentionally fetishistic set after I realized how odd it was that we had never addressed fetish together at all. I asked her to bring things that she personally fetishized: she chose gloves, latex, a straight edge razor, stiletto heels and Euro heeled, full fashioned stockings. We created the shoot around these personal fetish objects, rather than around the typical image vocabulary that informs most fetish photography. This shoot ended up inspiring a new offshoot in my work: shooting my most fetishistic friends' personal fetishes. Eros Zine: Often in your bondage photos, there is to my eyes an intense sense of peace in the model. Is this something you're aware of or do you see a connection between restraint and psychological peace?
Eros Zine: Much of your most often shown work is in B&W -- What things make you prefer black and white vs. color? Michele Serchuk: I am not sure I can explain why some things strike me as calling for B&W or for color, for film or for digital -- some things just do. It's like with cooking: sometimes you want olive oil, sometimes butter. Eros Zine: Do you shoot digital, film, or a combination? Do you do much post-production, or shoot the image as it will be seen? Michele Serchuk: I shoot a combination. In general, I try to perfect the cropping and exposure as well as possible in camera. I do as little post-production as possible, using Photoshop much the same as I'd use a traditional darkroom. I crop, adjust for color and tonal range. Every now and then I'll have to Photoshop out some extraneous element, e.g. license plates on cars, things like that, but as a portrait shooter I'm not terribly interested in changing much about my subjects. Eros Zine: Are your settings, costumes, etc. planned in advance or do they tend to present themselves unexpectedly? Michele Serchuk: I always sit down and plan these elements with my subjects ahead of time. Together, we try to find elements that will create heat and/or emotional connection for them. But, I also allow for serendipity. I have one favorite hot wax shot that happened because a woman I was shooting in a sensual rope scene found a candle in the studio. Eros Zine: You work a lot with extremes of light and shadow, which brings out some unexpected textures in many of your photographs. How aware are you of texture when you're photographing? Are you trying to create a sense of how the surfaces (floor, glass, furniture, material, skin, hair) will feel in the viewer's mind? Michele Serchuk: Again, it's like cooking. I become attracted to using particular objects or clothing, or shooting in this or that kind of light for different kinds of shoots. I choose the ingredients based on my own emotional reactions and what I think they will taste like to me in the finished image.
Michele Serchuk: I've had solo exhibits at Purple Passion/DV8 and MBM Gallery, in the MTV world headquarters in New York City, and at Aphrodite Gallery in Philadelphia. I have shown in the Seattle Erotic Art Festival 2004 and 2005, participated in group shows at Art @ Large Gallery, Tiny Fine Art @ Bergdorf Goodman's, Scott Pfaffman Gallery, Greeley Square Gallery, Sacred Body Art Gallery, and in Golin-Harris International's corporate offices in New York City. I have also shown at Mark Chester's SexArt 5, and at the Good Vibrations Photo Sex exhibit in San Francisco, and participated for two years in Chicago's Around the Coyote Festival through Feitico Gallery. I have had work many web galleries over the years. Right now the best places to see my work (other than Eros Zine, of course!) besides my own site are my partner DeLano's site: www.delanobound.com and the Tiny Fine Art site, www.tinyfineart.com. Eros Zine: Any upcoming exhibitions, books or other projects you'd like to let us know about? Michele Serchuk: I'll be exhibiting again with Art At Large at the Seattle Erotic Art Festival this coming March. And I'll be presenting on my work for MOB New England in Boston on Sun, April 15th. Eros Zine: What should readers do if they're interested in modeling for you? Michele Serchuk: Take a look at my work. Each photographer sees differently. Think about whether you'd like to be seen in my aesthetic, and whether you're interested in collaborating on erotic portraiture. There's a difference between glamour/fantasy shots and what I do. If you'd like to shoot personal work with me, read over the FAQs on my site. If the photos strike a chord and the way I work sounds like a good fit for you, and you're in NYC or traveling here, drop me an email. I sometimes have opportunity to shoot on the road; most likely possible locations in the upcoming year will be Seattle, San Francisco and Toronto. If you'd like to hire me for commissioned work, email me directly and I can explain the way that works, too. Eros Zine: Thanks, Michele! Again, for more info about Michele, readers can check out her sites photodiva.com and micheleserchuk.com, and her art blog with DeLano, divalano.livejournal.com.
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