July 2004 – Kiss of Fire by Barbara Nitke

Barbara Nitke is a New York City artist who has been exploring issues of sexual relationship through photography since 1982. She is the current president of the Camera Club of New York (founded in 1884 by Alfred Stieglitz) and is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her work has been the subject of one-woman exhibitions in New York, New Orleans, Baltimore, Provincetown, Philadelphia and in Europe. A chief objective of her photographs is focus on the loving attachment between participants. In Kiss of Fire, Nitke writes of her experience exploring the sadomasochistic community and her increasing desire to photograph the lovers she saw. Unlike the fetish fashion books that dominate this niche, Nitke has captured the intense energy and passion of genuine sadomasochistic lovers. Her work is an insiders view into the issues of trust, intimacy and negotiation that makes these relationships possible. “Nitke’s photography shows the beauty of sadomasochism and the love it takes to make the power exchange inherent to it work,” according to Susan Wright of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom One of the featured photographs from Barbara's new book