Link's pictures explore fantasy themes like abduction, military recruitment and Middle Eastern slavery as gateways to extreme torture using fiendish devices.
Link - Rusty's Initiation
Some of the early pictures are brightly coloured and firmly drawn and in some early work the contours of the figures are so thick that the result is reminiscent of a stained glass window and the style of the figure drawing has a naivety which seems quite appropriate.
The torture is usually focussed on the genital area and might involve mangling rollers, single and multiple piercings, dissection, burning etc. Harsh stuff, but there is none of the horror such as Blake's mutilation pictures convey and none of dark brooding atmosphere of Les' work. All seems light hearted and inconsequential.
Link - Body Torture and Cock Stretch
The expressions on the captives' faces always seem to lag behind the scale of the nastiness which is being inflicted on them, they smile when being bound, they look puzzled as the torture begins and only under the most extreme duress and mutilation does a hint of pain begin to show. Heroic indeed. Their captors may wear knowing looks and evil smiles but quite often are curiously detached, happily going about their work with no particular regard to the victim. If Link does have fellow spirit, it might be Felix Falkon whose scenes of youthful experimentation with fire and electricity are equally light-hearted.
Link - Sailor Hal - Final Destination
Link's later heroes are extremely handsome in a film star/college boy way with magnificent upper body physiques and improbable endowments (which are always on display). There is a hint of Tom of Finland about the style and content (note the sailor in the background) but the settings are much more fanciful and detailed than Tom's. He packs a wealth of narrative into his pictures and his stories like 'The Cock Corps' for example create fantasy worlds of torture and captivity which are impressive in their variety.
Link - Sailor Hal Abducted
Link's flair for conjuring up original scenes is demonstrated here by the captive stud being transported in a van - a scene from a sailor abduction scenario which echoes Etienne's 'Sailor Beware' - even down to the sock and garter interest! This naïve little picture (which harks back to the 'stained glass' style) is surprisingly sexy. But that's what Link's pictures are - sexy invocations of dangerous fantasies that would be utterly horrific in real life.
There's another notable prisoner transport example of his work in my post entitled 'I'm On The Train!'
I can't think why I omitted it from here, it's one of my favourites!
There's another notable prisoner transport example of his work in my post entitled 'I'm On The Train!'
I can't think why I omitted it from here, it's one of my favourites!
Link's contribution to the world of fetish art was a lot more significant than the lightness of his style suggests. He moved on to photo manipulation in later years (see comment attached) and died in 2010
A search of GMBA (see sidebar) will turn up more examples.
For other articles in this series click on the A-Z label below.
3 comments:
From Link:-
I want to thank you for including my work in your survey, and to show my appreciation for your perceptive comments. The phrase "light hearted" surprised me a bit, but I can see that it's a real by-product of my primary intention in many of my works - to create a world that was the opposite of the repressive world in which I existed. I thought it would be the height of eroticism if male nudity and even SM were parts of daily life - and that's why so many of the facial expressions were so casual.
Initially, I drew my stuff to fill a void and feed my starved erotic imagination because there was nothing published that did so. But eventually all my fantasies were fulfilled by material that COULD get published, and so my motivation to draw simply disappeared.
Then after about 10 years, suddenly particular photos, instead of kiiling my creative impulses, started to feed them. As I looked at particular models, I found myself thinking, "What could I do to YOU, my beauty?", and that led me to Overdrawing. I call it Overdrawing, since I don't so much manipulate the photos as draw over them, within the severe limits of the Paint program on my computer.
Hi, where can I find more of Link's work? Particularly those related to 'Train Ride To Crotchdorf'?
There's a decent collectuon at Daddy's Here,
http://www.daddyshere.com/link.html
The only other source I know is GMBA Google Group, but I don't know if it's still possible to get into it, Google seems to have put it into quarantine but it continues to function. There's a link in the sidebar of this blog. Contact the owner.
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