Tom of Finland’s Death Anniversary Week Celebration, November 7 – 13, 2022 @dollphotostudio
In this post:
Tom drew a lot of bikers. In fact, he drew so many of them that there’s a Taschen book dedicated to Tom’s bikers.
These three inspiration images are nine years apart. The first and second ones were from a series signed 1963, whilst the third was signed 1972.
Another dominant aspect in Tom’s work is nature. He drew trees as well as he drew nipples. But his specific settings are quite difficult to accurately be recaptured in Los Angeles.
You may have noticed differences between Tom’s pieces and my doll photos. Some aren’t intentional, bound by the limits of the figure’s range of motion as well as accessories. Some are intentional, such as using colors instead of grayscale. This gives me room to play and offer, if you will, an updated homage.
With that in mind, I decided to do this series’ photoshoot at the Desiderio Neighborhood Park in Pasadena. The park is right next to the iconic Colorado Bridge and is an excellent blend of foliage and concrete.
However, the hardest part isn’t deciding where to shoot. It’s overcoming my own fear of doing a photoshoot in public. Specifically, a homoerotic doll photoshoot.
A small part of that fear is not having control over the lighting. But the bigger part is being charged with indecency, especially if there’re children. The queer community has already been accused of grooming kids, and I don’t want to add fuel to that bigoted flame.
But on that Friday noon in October, Desiderio was almost deserted. The sun was almost at the right angle. And so, I put Matt (in leather) and Chrissy (in the buff) in various compromising positions on a sixth-scale motorbike.
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Dollsexposed showcases queer erotica, kink, fetish, and activism through twelve-inch doll photography. Their adventures in the doll world began in 2011 before establishing a home on dollsexposed.com eleven years later.
Dollsexposed's works have been displayed at Seattle Erotic Art Festival and Los Angeles Leather Getaway.