Forbidden City

Jean-Christian Bourcart
Forbidden City

Photographs: Jean-Christian Bourcart

Text: Régis Jauffret

Publisher: Le Point du Jour Editeur, Octeville

48 pages

Year: 1999

Comments: Softcover, 25 cm × 17,5 cm, photographs in color. Small fold on first page otherwise in good condition.

In Paris and New York, I would, from time to time, wander around S&M and swingers clubs with a hidden camera, in pursuit of a dream of dissolution, harmony, and collective ecstasy. As a creator of illusion, I’m concerned with truth. And for me these are places of truth, like mental hospitals and battlefields.
In such places, reality is heightened––is sometimes violent––but human interactions are mostly tender and sincere. Strictly speaking, there is little in the way of purely sexual pleasure. As if, strangely, pleasure wasn’t to be found where we most expect it.