Description
“You have to imagine human desires as a sea of multicoloured marbles. Impossible to count them all. And you keep finding one that you did not know before.” Nora Gantenbrink
In his book SESSIONS photographer Florian Müller takes us on a journey across Germany and advances to the core, to primeval desires and needs of the human existence. The general image of fetishist sexuality is dominated by violent fantasies, latex and leather, but the real diversity is much greater. Müller’s pictures are only black and white at first glance. If you look closely, you notice shades of grey and other nuances. He worked on the so-called Candy Crush Project for several years, an unusual photographic work on fetishism in Germany. He encountered people often thought of as ‘perverse’. But no one in this volume wanted to be denounced as ‘sick’ or be socially stigmatized. For them their individual fetish allowed them a more fulfilled life, some claimed to have found ‘themselves’ in this way. Sometimes it took weeks before they trusted him and let him in on their so-called sessions, their sexual games. Florian Müller did not abuse their trust. He took the people in front of his camera seriously, did not serve any clichés. His pictures are not revolting, but close, almost tender. When a domina embraces her guest. When an early retiree finds fulfilment in a vacuum bed. When a man who likes to take on the role of a horse turns totally calm. Müller says: “Most sessions are shockingly harmless. What the people whose stories are shown in my pictures have in common is a meaningful quest for elementary human needs, such as freedom, warmth and comfort, maybe even happiness.”
